Enduser

FLEXlm End
p
P
Users Guide
Version 7.2
GLOBEtrotter Software, Inc.

San Jose, CA 95125
Voice: (408) 445-8100

Fax: (408) 445-7760
Email: info@globes.com
Web: http://www.globetrotter.com
December 2000
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Table of
Contents
Chapter 1 Welcome to FLEXlm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.1 Versions of FLEXlm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.2 How to Use This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3 Related Documents from GLOBEtrotter Software . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Chapter 2 Introduction and Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.1 Introduction to FLEXlm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2 FLEXlm Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3 The License Request Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.4 Configuring FLEXlm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.5 Getting Started Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Chapter 3 The License File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.1 Specifying Location of the License File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.2 License File Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.3 Sample License File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.4 Types of License Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.5 Decimal Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.6 License File Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Chapter 4 Multiple License Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.1 Overview of Combining License Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.2 Using LM_LICENSE_FILE License File List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Chapter 5 Selecting Server Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5.1 Resources Used by the Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5.2 Remote Mounted Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
5.3 Redundant Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
5.4 Counted vs. Uncounted Licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
FLEXlm End Users Guide — December 2000 iv

Chapter 6 The Options File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6.1 Creating an Options File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6.2 Options File Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
6.3 How the Vendor Daemon Uses the Options File . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
6.4 Rules of Precedence in Options Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
6.5 Options File Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Chapter 7 License Administration Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
7.1 Running Administration Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
7.2 Universal lmutil Arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
7.3 lmcksum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
7.4 lmdiag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
7.5 lmdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
7.6 lmgrd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
7.7 lmhostid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
7.8 lminstall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
7.9 lmnewlog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
7.10 lmremove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
7.11 lmreread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
7.12 lmstat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
7.13 lmswitchr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
7.14 lmver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
7.15 License Administration Tools—LMTOOLS for Windows . . . . . 77
Appendix A Hostids for FLEXlm-Supported Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
A.1 Hostid Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
A.2 Expected FLEXlm Hostids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
A.3 Special FLEXlm Hostids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Appendix B Troubleshooting Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
B.1 General Debugging Hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
B.2 FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
B.3 FLEXlm Troubleshooting List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Appendix C FLEXlm Environment Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
C.1 How to Set Environment Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
C.2 Environment Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
v FLEXlm End Users Guide — December 2000

Appendix D Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
D.1 License File Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
D.2 FLEXlm Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
D.3 Using FLEXlm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
D.4 Windows Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Appendix E FLEXlm Error Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
E.1 Error Message Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
E.2 Error Code Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Appendix F The Debug Log File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
F.1 Informational Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
F.2 Configuration Problem Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
F.3 Daemon Software Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Appendix G FLEXlm Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
G.1 Version Compatibility and Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
G.2 How to Tell the License File Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
FLEXlm End Users Guide — December 2000 vi

vii FLEXlm End Users Guide — December 2000
Chapter 1
Welcome to FLEXlm
FLEXlm is the de facto standard network license manager used by over 2000
leading software vendors to control the use of their software products. If you
are a system administrator or user, chances are one or more of the products
currently on your network is licensed by FLEXlm.
This manual explains FLEXlm from an end user standpoint and describes how
to use the tools which are part of the standard FLEXlm distribution kit.
GLOBEtrotter Software also provides the SAMsuite asset management tool
for more advanced license server control and reporting. Please contact
GLOBEtrotter Software by email at info@globes.com or on the Internet at
http://www.globetrotter.com for more information about SAMsuite.
Keep in mind that certain topics (such as password encryption) are vendor-
specific and proprietary so we cannot document them in any detail. Also,
because FLEXlm does not enforce a particular licensing strategy, each
vendor’s implementation can have subtle differences. If you do not find out
what you need to know here, you should contact your vendor’s technical
support group.
1.1 Versions of FLEXlm

This manual covers features of interest to license administrators and end users
in FLEXlm versions 1.0 through 7.2.
1.2 How to Use This Manual

This manual is written for two different audiences: the license administrator
and the end user.
FLEXlm End Users Guide — December 2000 8

How to Use This Manual
1.2.1 License Administrator

If you are a license administrator, read these chapters:
This chapter: Explains:

Welcome to FLEXlm FLEXlm basics: license manager and vendor
daemons; the license file; configuring
FLEXlm; the license request process.
The License File The license file format; setting the path at
start-up; different types of licensing policies.
Multiple License Files Using license files from independent
software vendors.
Selecting Server Nodes Selecting which machines will run the
license servers; resources required by the
servers; multiple servers; quorums;
redundant servers.
The Options File Creating and editing the options file.
License Administration Managing FLEXlm using GLOBEtrotter-
Tools supplied utilities.
In addition, you can refer to Appendix B, “Troubleshooting Guide,” which

contains a list of common problems and their solutions and Appendix D,
“Frequently Asked Questions.”
1.2.2 End User
If you are an end user, read these chapters:
This chapter: Explains:

Welcome to FLEXlm FLEXlm basics: license and vendor daemons;
the license file; configuring FLEXlm; the
license request process.
The License File The license file format; setting the path at start-
up; different types of licensing policies.
9 Welcome to FLEXlm
Related Documents from GLOBEtrotter Software
In addition, you can refer to Appendix B, “Troubleshooting Guide,” which

contains a list of common problems and their solutions.
1.3 Related Documents from GLOBEtrotter Software

The SAMsuite Users Guide describes the SAMsuite license administration tool
for managing FLEXlm-enabled applications, and the SAMwrap Users Guide
describes SAMwrap for administrators who wish to provide FLEXlm license
management for applications shipped without embedded license management.
The FLEXlm Programmers Guide and FLEXlm Reference Manual are for
programmers responsible for incorporating FLEXlm into their products.

Related Documents from GLOBEtrotter Software
11 Welcome to FLEXlm
Chapter 2
Introduction and Overview
This chapter explains the basics of floating (network) licensing and gives a
quick overview of the components of FLEXlm. It explains where license
administrators have control and where end users have control. Section 2.5,
“Getting Started Checklist,” tells both license administrators and end users
how to start managing FLEXlm.
2.1 Introduction to FLEXlm

FLEXlm is the most popular license manager used in the software industry.
FLEXlm is best known for its ability to allow software licenses to be available
(or float) anywhere on a network, instead of being tied to specific machines.
Floating licensing benefits both users and license administrators. Users can
make more efficient use of fewer licenses by sharing them on the network.
License administrators can control who uses the licensed application and the
node(s) where the licenses will be available. See Section 3.4, “Types of
License Files,” for details about the different licensing models supported by
FLEXlm.
2.2 FLEXlm Components

The four main components of FLEXlm are:
• License manager daemon
• Vendor daemon
• License file
• Application program
2.2.1 The License Manager Daemon (lmgrd)
The license manager daemon (lmgrd) handles the initial contact with the
client application programs, passing the connection on to the appropriate
vendor daemon. It also starts and restarts the vendor daemons. FLEXlm
permits multiple redundant license manager daemons on three server nodes,

FLEXlm Components
allowing you to make your license available if any two of the three server
nodes is running. Redundancy can be achieved with three-server redundant
servers or by using a license file list with any number of servers.
Note: lmgrd is not present on VMS or Netware systems.
2.2.2 The Vendor Daemon

In FLEXlm, licenses are granted by running processes (unless they’re node-
locked, uncounted licenses, in which case they need only read the license file
to run). There is one process for each vendor who has a FLEXlm-licensed
product on the network. This process is called the vendor daemon. The vendor
daemon keeps track of how many licenses are checked out, and who has them.
If the vendor daemon terminates for any reason, all users lose their licenses
(though this does not mean the applications suddenly stop running). Users
normally regain their license automatically when lmgrd restarts the vendor
daemon, though they may exit if the vendor daemon remains unavailable.
Client programs communicate with the vendor daemon, usually through
TCP/IP network communications. The client application and the daemon
processes (the license server) can run on separate nodes on your network,
across any size wide-area network. Also, the format of the traffic between the
client and the vendor daemon is machine independent, allowing for
heterogeneous networks. This means the license server and the computer
running an application can be either different hardware platforms or even
different operating systems (Windows and UNIX, for example).
2.2.3 The License File
Licensing data is stored in a text file called the license file. The license file is
created by the software vendor, and edited and installed by the license
administrator. It contains information about the server nodes and vendor
daemons, and at least one line of data (called FEATURE or INCREMENT
lines) for each licensed product. Each FEATURE line contains a license key or
signature based on the data in that line, the hostids specified in the SERVER
line(s), and other vendor-specific data.
In some environments, the licensing information for several vendors may be
combined into a single license file.
Most applications have an expected location for the license file, documented
by that application. End users can usually override this location by setting the
environment variable LM_LICENSE_FILE to point elsewhere, or by following
13 Introduction and Overview

The License Request Process
instructions supplied with the licensed application. If your site has software
from multiple vendors with incompatible license files (due to different sets of
servers), you can keep the data in separate files and set the LM_LICENSE_FILE
variable to reference multiple files.
It’s strongly recommended that you keep a link (on UNIX) or copy of the
license file in the vendor’s expected license location, so that users will not need
to set LM_LICENSE_FILE to run their applications. If the licenses are counted
(floating) this license should have a USE_SERVER line directly after the
SERVER line. For details, see Chapter 3, “The License File.” See also
Appendix C, “FLEXlm Environment Variables.”
2.2.4 The Application Program
The application program using FLEXlm is linked with the program module
(called the FLEXlm client library) that provides the communication with the
license server. On Windows, this module is called lmgrxxx.dll, where xxx
indicates the FLEXlm version. During execution, the application program
communicates with the vendor daemon to request a license.
2.3 The License Request Process

When you run a counted FLEXlm-licensed application, the following occurs:
1. The license module in the client application finds the license file, which
includes the host name of the license server node and port number of the
license manager daemon, lmgrd.
2. The client establishes a connection with the license manager daemon
(lmgrd) and tells it what vendor daemon it needs to talk to.
3. lmgrd determines which machine and port correspond to the master
vendor daemon and sends that information back to the client.
4. The client establishes a connection with the specified vendor daemon and
sends its request for a license.
5. The vendor daemon checks in its memory to see if any licenses are
available and sends a grant or denial back to the client.
6. The license module in the application grants or denies use of the feature,
as appropriate.
Uncounted features (where the license count is 0) do not require a server, and
the FLEXlm client library routines in the application grant or deny usage based
solely upon the license contents.

Configuring FLEXlm
2.4 Configuring FLEXlm

Most of the parameters of FLEXlm are configurable by the license
administrator. The license administrator can set the:
• Location of the license file (though it’s recommended that a copy or link
of the license remains at the location where the application expects it)
• Location of all executables
• Location of all log files
• TCP/IP port number used by the license manager process, lmgrd
In addition, the license administrator can reserve licenses for specific users,
nodes, or groups, and control other license-related options. Changing
parameters is discussed in Chapter 6, “The Options File.”
Note: Refer to your vendor’s documentation before attempting to change file names,
locations, or contents.
2.5 Getting Started Checklist

The following sections provide a quick overview of how to set up and use
licensing for FLEXlm-licensed products. By scanning the list, you should be
able to quickly find the areas of interest. Cross-references point to more details
in other parts of this manual.
2.5.1 Installing Licensed Software
As a license administrator you are responsible for setting up licensing on your
system or network. This section tells you how to do that. If you are an end user
of the application and you will not be involved in installing it, then go to
Section 2.5.2, “Notes for End Users.”
Remember that the installation guide for your application software is the final
word on installing and configuring FLEXlm. Generally, however, installing
FLEXlm licensing requires the following steps:
1. Select your license server nodes and get their hostids. See Appendix A,
“Hostids for FLEXlm-Supported Machines.”
2. Give the hostids to your software vendor and get a license file (or the data
to enter in the license file) in return.
3. Consider combining the new license file with any existing license files.
See Chapter 4, “Multiple License Files.”

Getting Started Checklist
4. Determine if an options file is desired, and if so, set it up.

5. Determine where to install the FLEXlm utility programs such as lmgrd
and lmutil (lmstat/lmdown/etc.) and install them, unless your vendor’s
installation script does so for you.
6. Start lmgrd (the license manager daemon) manually; you may also want
to set it up to start automatically at boot time. See Section 3.1.1, “Starting
the License Server at System Startup.”
These steps are discussed briefly below, with cross-references to the
appropriate locations for more detail.
LICENSE SERVER NODE AND HOSTIDS
Before running any FLEXlm-licensed program using floating licenses, you
will need to set up your license server node (or nodes). You must select which
node or nodes to run your license servers on and provide the hostids of those
machines to your software vendor. For pointers on selecting your server
machine, see Chapter 5, “Selecting Server Nodes.”
You can get the hostid of the server machine by running FLEXlm’s lmhostid
utility on that machine. If you don’t have lmhostid, you can get the hostid of
your machine by using the appropriate command as described in Appendix A,
“Hostids for FLEXlm-Supported Machines.”
Using the hostid of your server machines, your vendor will send you a license
file that enables their application software.
LICENSE FILES AND LMGRD
Once you have received a license file from your vendor, you must install it on
your system and start up the license manager daemon, lmgrd.
• Your software vendor may have selected a default location for your license
file. If not, you can use any location you wish. For more details, see
Chapter 3, “The License File.”
• To start lmgrd automatically at boot time, you will have to modify your
system files (UNIX) or use LMTOOLS (Windows). For details, see
Section 3.1.1, “Starting the License Server at System Startup.”
ADMINISTRATION TOOLS
GLOBEtrotter Software supplies administration tools to your software vendor.
The vendor usually includes them with their product. The recommended
location for the tools is /usr/local/bin (UNIX), C:\flexlm (Windows),

Getting Started Checklist
or SYS$COMMON:[SYSMGR] (VMS), but you can install them in a different

location (or not at all). See Chapter 7, “License Administration Tools,” for
more information.
OPTIONS FILES
The options file controls various options such as reservations and timeouts of
licenses. Most users run without an options file, but you may decide you want
to use some options. For example, many administrators use an option to limit
the quantity and content of logged messages. To set up an options file, see
Chapter 6, “The Options File.”
2.5.2 Notes for End Users
As a user of a FLEXlm-licensed application, you may need to know a few
things to use the system effectively. The main things you need to know are:
• How to tell an application which license file to use
• How to query the system to find out who is using a license
HOW TO SPECIFY A LICENSE FILE
The license file determines what features are available to a program. It also
contains information telling the application how to connect to the license
server.
For information about the standard way of specifying a license file for an
application, see Chapter 3, “The License File.”
GETTING INFORMATION ABOUT LICENSES
To find out who is using a license run lmstat, described in Chapter 7,
“License Administration Tools.”

Chapter 3
The License File
The license file contains all site-specific information required by FLEXlm.

This information includes:
• Server names and hostids
• Vendor names and paths to vendor daemon executables
• Feature information
In general, the license file, or a copy of it, must be accessible to every machine
that runs a FLEXlm-licensed application, and each machine designated as a
license server. If the license file contains counted (also called “floating”)
licenses, before you can use the application you have to start the license
manager daemon (lmgrd) using the following syntax:
lmgrd -c license_file_path -l debug_log_path
where license_file_path is the full path to the license file and

debug_log_path is the full path to the debug log file.
Note: On VMS and Netware systems, there is no lmgrd and the vendor daemon is
run directly.
3.1 Specifying Location of the License File

Most software vendors recommend a specific location for your license file. If
you are running the application on multiple nodes, you have these options for
making your license available on all the machines:
• Place the license file in a partition which is available (via NFS on UNIX
systems) to all nodes in the network that need the license file.
• Copy the license file to all of the nodes where it is needed.

Specifying Location of the License File
• Set LM_LICENSE_FILE to port@host, where host and port come from

the SERVER line in the license file. With v6+, you can use @host, if the
license file SERVER line uses a default port or specifies a port in the
default port range (27000-27009).
• On Windows (v6+), if the application can’t find the license, the user is
presented with a dialog box that asks for the license location or the name
of the system running the license server or that allows the user to type in
the license directly.
Since the vendor daemon keeps track of license usage, and since the license file
contains encrypted data to protect it against modification, you may move and
copy the license file as much as necessary.
For counted licenses, no matter which option you choose, you must first install
lmgrd and the vendor daemon.
With a FLEXlm v6+ vendor daemon and lmgrd, the license path can be a list
of files, separated by colons on UNIX or semi-colons on Windows. If there is
a directory in this list, all files named *.lic in that directory are used.
Note: You can only start lmgrd on the server node specified in the license file.
Note: If you are running redundant servers, you should have separate copies of the
license file (as well as the binaries for lmgrd and the vendor daemons) on each
server node. If you do not do this, you lose all the advantages of having
redundant servers, since the file server holding these files becomes a single
point of failure.
3.1.1 Starting the License Server at System Startup

If any licenses in the license file are counted (license count > 0), then the
license server must be started before the product can be used.
UNIX
To start the license manager daemon (lmgrd), execute a command similar to
the following.
If you are running in the C shell:
lmgrd_path -c license_file_path -l debug_log_path &
If you are using either the Korn or Bourne shell:
nohup lmgrd_path -c license_file_path -l debug_log_path 2>&1 &
19 The License File

On UNIX, edit the appropriate boot script, which may be /etc/rc.boot,

/etc/rc.local, /etc/rc2.d/Sxxx, /sbin/rc2.d/Sxxxx, etc.
Remember that these scripts are run in /bin/sh, so do not use the csh “>&”
redirection syntax.
Each UNIX operating system can have some quirks in doing this, but the
following script has been successfully tested for HP700 systems. See the notes
following for a full explanation.
/bin/su daniel -c ’echo starting lmgrd > \
/home/flexlm/v5.12/hp700_u9/boot.log’
/bin/nohup /bin/su daniel -c ’umask 022; \

/home/flexlm/v5.12/hp700_u9/lmgrd -c \
/home/flexlm/v5.12/hp700_u9/license.dat >> \
/bin/su daniel -c ’echo sleep 5 >> \

/bin/sleep 5
/bin/su daniel -c ’echo lmdiag >>\

/bin/su daniel -c ’/home/flexlm/v5.12/hp700_u9/lmdiag -n -c\

/home/flexlm/v5.12/hp700_u9/license.dat >> \
/bin/su daniel -c ’echo exiting >>\

Please note the following about how this script was written:
• All paths are specified in full, because no paths can be assumed at boot
time.
• Because no paths are assumed, the vendor daemon must be in the same
directory as lmgrd, or the DAEMON lines must be edited to include the
full path to the vendor daemon.

• The su command is used to run lmgrd as a non-root user, “daniel.” We

recommend that lmgrd not be run as “root,” since it can be a security risk
to run any program as “root” that does not require root permissions, and
lmgrd does not require root permissions.
• Daniel has a csh login, so all commands executed as “daniel” must be in
csh syntax. All commands not executed as “daniel” must be in /bin/sh
syntax, since that is what is used by the boot scripts.
• The use of nohup and sleep are required on some operating systems,
notably HP-UX and Digital UNIX, for obscure technical reasons. These
are not needed on Solaris and some other operating systems, but are safe
to use on all.
• lmdiag is used as a diagnostic tool to verify that the server is running and
serving licenses.
Note: On IBM RS6000 systems, /etc/rc cannot be used, because TCP/IP is not
installed when this script is run. Instead, /etc/inittab must be used. Add a
line like this to /etc/inittab after the lines which start networking:
rclocal:2:wait:/etc/rc.local > /dev/console 2>&1
Note: This will not start the daemon until you reboot your license server machine.
WINDOWS
From LMTOOLS, start lmgrd. You can optionally indicate that this should be
started at system startup.
3.1.2 Setting the Path with an Environment Variable
Most applications specify a location where they expect to find the license file.
Many will automatically install the license. You should rarely, if ever, be
required to specify where the license file is located with an environment
variable. However, you can change the license location with
LM_LICENSE_FILE, or if a location is not set by the application, you can set
one.
Use the environment variable LM_LICENSE_FILE to set the location of the
license file. For example in the C shell:
setenv LM_LICENSE_FILE license_file_path
21 The License File

License File Format
In the Korn and Bourne shells:

LM_LICENSE_FILE=license_file_path
export LM_LICENSE_FILE
On Windows 95, add the following line to C:\autoexec.bat:

SET LM_LICENSE_FILE=license_file_path
On Windows NT, use the System Control Panel to change the global
environment, adding LM_LICENSE_FILE to license_file_path, where
license_file_path is the full path to the license file. This can also be a
port@host setting, where port and host are the port number and host name
from the SERVER line in the license file. v6+ applications can use simply
@host, if the server uses a default port number.
In FLEXlm v6+, applications will accept an environment variable (or
Windows Registry) named VENDOR_LICENSE_FILE, where VENDOR is the
vendor daemon name, e.g., GSI_LICENSE_FILE.
With lmgrd and lmutil (lmstat, lmdown, etc.), the -c option overrides the
setting of the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable. See Section 4.1.3,
“Using Separate License Files on the Same Server Node,” for more
information about LM_LICENSE_FILE.
Note: Some applications do not recognize the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment

variable.
See also Appendix C, “FLEXlm Environment Variables.”
3.2 License File Format

License files usually begin with a SERVER line (or three lines for redundant
servers) followed by one or more DAEMON lines, followed by one or more
FEATURE or INCREMENT lines. In some cases the license file requires no
SERVER line and no DAEMON line. See Section 5.4, “Counted vs.
Uncounted Licenses,” for more information. Since FLEXlm v6.0, the
DAEMON line can be called VENDOR. Wherever DAEMON appears,
VENDOR can be used, if the lmgrd and vendor daemon are both >= FLEXlm
v6.0.
You can modify these data items in the license file:
• Node names on the SERVER line(s)
• Port numbers on the SERVER line(s)

License File Format
• Paths on the DAEMON line(s)

• Options file paths on the DAEMON line(s)
• Optional port numbers on the DAEMON line(s) (for firewall support only)
• USE_SERVER line (FLEXlm v5+ only)
• Values in keyword=value pairs on FEATURE lines, if keyword is all
lowercase
Long lines normally use the “\” line-continuation character to break up long
lines (though this is not required with v7+ applications). FLEXlm v2 did not
support the line-continuation character, although this rarely matters since
optional attributes weren’t support then either.
Note: Everything else is used to compute the license key or signature, and should be
entered exactly as supplied by your software vendor. All data in the license file
is case sensitive, unless otherwise indicated.
3.2.1 SERVER Lines

The SERVER line specifies the node name and hostid of the license server and
the port number of the license manager daemon (lmgrd). Normally a license
file has one SERVER line. Three SERVER lines mean that you are using
redundant servers. The absence of a SERVER line means that every FEATURE
or INCREMENT line in the license file is uncounted. For more information
about uncounted features, see Section 3.2.4, “FEATURE or INCREMENT
Lines.” License administrators do not have the option of deleting SERVER
lines from a license file because the hostids from the SERVER lines are
computed into the license key or signature on every FEATURE and
INCREMENT line. For more information about redundant servers, see
Chapter 5, “Selecting Server Nodes.”
23 The License File

License File Format
The format of the SERVER line is:

SERVER host hostid [port]
where:
host The system host name or IP address. String returned by

the UNIX hostname or uname -n command. On NT,
ipconfig /all; on Windows 95, winipcfg /all
return the host name. If the application uses FLEXlm v5 or
higher, this can be an IP address (in ###.###.###.###
format).
hostid Usually the string returned by the lmhostid command.
This can only be changed by your software supplier.
port TCP port number to use. A valid number is any unused
port number between 0 and 64000. On UNIX, choose a
port >1024, since those <1024 are privileged port
numbers. The port number is optional if lmgrd, the
vendor daemon, and the application are v6+ (if no port
number is specified, one of the default ports in the range
of 27000 and 27009 will be used).
Example:
SERVER enterprise 0122345 21987
3.2.2 DAEMON (or VENDOR) Lines

The DAEMON line specifies the daemon name and path. lmgrd uses this line
to start the vendor daemon, and the vendor daemon reads it to find its options
file. The format of the DAEMON line is shown below.
Note: Since FLEXlm v6.0, the DAEMON line can be called VENDOR. VENDOR
can be used if the lmgrd and vendor daemon are both at least FLEXlm v6.0.

License File Format
{DAEMON|VENDOR} vendor [vendor_daemon_path]\

[[options=]options_file_path] [[port=]port]
where:
vendor Name of the vendor daemon used to serve some

feature(s) in the file. This name cannot be changed
by the administrator.
vendor_daemon_ Path to the executable for this daemon. Generally
path the license administrator is free to install the
daemon in any directory. (It is recommended,
however, that it be installed in a local directory on
the license server node.)
If the vendor daemon is v6+, this path is optional.
If left out, lmgrd will look for the vendor daemon
binary in the current directory, the PATH list, or in
the directory where lmgrd is located. If the
vendor daemon path is blank, then the options=
and port= strings are required if options or port
number are specified.
options_file_ Full path to the end-user options file for this
path daemon. (See Chapter 6, “The Options File.”)
FLEXlm does not require an options file. The
keyword options= requires a v5+ vendor
daemon.
If the vendor daemon is v6+, the options file need
not be specified on this line. If it is called
vendor.opt (where vendor is the vendor
daemon name) and located in the same directory
as the license file, the vendor daemon will
automatically find and use it.
25 The License File

License File Format
port Vendor daemon port number. This requires a v5+

lmgrd.
Note: This is for firewall support only and is
otherwise not recommended. If a port number is
specified on the DAEMON line, there is a delay
restarting the vendor daemon until all the clients
have closed their connections to the vendor
daemon.
v6.0:
VENDOR sampled
pre-v6.0:
DAEMON sampled /etc/sampled \
/a/b/sampled/licenses/sampled.opt
3.2.3 USE_SERVER Line (v5+ only)

USE_SERVER takes no arguments and has no impact on the server. When the
application sees USE_SERVER, it ignores everything in the license file except
preceding SERVER lines, and the checkout validation occurs at the vendor
daemon. USE_SERVER is recommended since it improves performance when
a license server is used. For uncounted features, USE_SERVER can be used to
force logging of usage by the daemons.
3.2.4 FEATURE or INCREMENT Lines
A FEATURE line describes the license to use a product. An INCREMENT line
can be used in place of a FEATURE line, as well as to incrementally add
licenses to a prior FEATURE or INCREMENT line in the license file.
Only the first FEATURE line for a given feature will be processed by the
vendor daemon. If you want to have additional copies of the same feature (for
example, to have multiple node-locked, counted features), then you must use
multiple INCREMENT lines. INCREMENT lines form license groups based
on the feature name, version, and node-lock hostid. If the feature name,
version, and node-lock hostid (and optionally, the vendor string, if the vendor
specified this) match a prior INCREMENT or FEATURE line, the new number
of licenses is added to the old number. If any of the three do not match, a new
group of licenses is created in the vendor daemon, and this group (called a
license pool) is counted independently from others with the same feature name.

License File Format
INCREMENT is not available for pre-v2.61 FLEXlm clients or servers. A

FEATURE line does not give an additional number of licenses, whereas an
INCREMENT line always gives an additional number of licenses.
Note: There is a rarely used option in FLEXlm which causes FEATURE lines to
function as INCREMENT lines. This option is called ls_use_all_feature_lines.
You will have to ask your vendor if they use this option. If they do, then all
FEATURE lines behave exactly as INCREMENT lines.
Note: A FEATURE line placed after another FEATURE or INCREMENT line will
be ignored (unless ls_use_all_feature_lines is set).
The format for the FEATURE line changed in FLEXlm v3.0 and again in
FLEXlm v6.0. The older formats are understood by new clients and servers,
but the new formats are more flexible.
v2 format:
{FEATURE|INCREMENT} feature vendor \
feat_version exp_date num_lic key \
“vendor_str” [feat_hostid]
v3–v7.0 format:
{FEATURE|INCREMENT} feature vendor feat_version \
exp_date num_lic key [HOSTID=feat_hostid] \
[VENDOR_STRING=”vendor_str”] [vendor_info=”...”] \
[dist_info=”...”] [user_info=”...”] [asset_info=”...”] \
[ISSUER=”...”] [NOTICE=”...”] [ck=nnn] [OVERDRAFT=nnn] \
[DUP_GROUP=NONE|SITE|[UHDV]]
v7.1+ format:
{FEATURE|INCREMENT} feature vendor feat_version \
exp_date num_lic [HOSTID=feat_hostid] \
[VENDOR_STRING=”vendor_str”] [vendor_info=”...”] \
[dist_info=”...”] [user_info=”...”] [asset_info=”...”] \
[ISSUER=”...”] [NOTICE=”...”] [ck=nnn] [OVERDRAFT=nnn] \
[DUP_GROUP=NONE|SITE|[UHDV]] SIGN=sign
Note: Nothing in a FEATURE/INCREMENT line is editable, except for values in

keyword=value pairs where keyword is all lowercase.
27 The License File

License File Format
where:
feature Name given to the feature by the vendor.

vendor Name of the vendor daemon; also found in the
DAEMON line. The specified daemon serves
this feature.
feat_version Version of this feature that is supported by this
license.
exp_date Expiration date of license, e.g., 7-may-1996.
Note: If the year is 0 (or 00, 000, 0000) then
the license never expires. Dates before 2000
can be two- or four-digit years. After 2000
they must be four-digit years. The expiration
date is fully year-2000 compliant.
FLEXlm v6 (or later) applications only: the
keyword “permanent” can be used instead of
the date 1-jan-0.
num_lic Number of concurrent licenses for this feature.
If the number of licenses is set to 0, the
licenses for this feature are uncounted and no
lmgrd is required but a hostid on the
FEATURE line is required. See Section 5.4,
“Counted vs. Uncounted Licenses.”
FLEXlm v6 (or later) applications only: the
keyword “uncounted” can be used instead of a
license count of 0.
key License key to authenticate this FEATURE
line. Two identical-looking FEATURE or
INCREMENT lines may have different license
keys if the start dates are different.
SIGN=sign SIGN= signature to authenticate this
FEATURE line. (v7.1+)

License File Format
The following fields are all optional (except for “vendor_str” in the v2
format). For optional fields of the keyword=value syntax, if the keyword is
lowercase, it can be modified and the license will remain valid.
“vendor_str” Vendor-defined string, enclosed in double

quotes. This string can contain any
characters except a quote. Required field in
the v2 format.
feat_hostid String returned by lmhostid. Used only if
the feature is to be bound to a particular
host, whether its use is counted or not.
Numeric hostids are case insensitive. See
Appendix A, “Hostids for FLEXlm-
Supported Machines,” for more information.
DUP_GROUP=... Duplicate grouping parameter can be
specified in the license in FLEXlm v4.0 and
later. The syntax is:
DUP_GROUP=NONE|SITE|[UHDV]
U = DUP_USER
H = DUP_HOST
D = DUP_DISPLAY
V = DUP_VENDOR_DEF
Any combination of UHDV is allowed, and
the DUP_MASK is the OR of the
combination. For example,
DUP_GROUP=UHD means the duplicate
grouping is
(DUP_USER|DUP_HOST|DUP_DISPLAY),
so for a user on the same host and display,
additional uses of a feature do not consume
additional licenses.
HOSTID= Same as feat_hostid above, but in the
feat_hostid keyword=value pair syntax (FLEXlm v3.0
and later).
29 The License File

License File Format
HOST_BASED[=n] Host names must be specified in INCLUDE

statements in the end-user options file, and
the number of hosts is limited to num_lic,
or the number specified in =n.
ISSUED= Date issued.
dd-mmm-yyyy
ISSUER=”...” Issuer of the license.
NOTICE=”...” A field for intellectual property notices.
OVERDRAFT=n FLEXlm v4.0 and later. The overdraft policy
allows your vendor to specify a number of
additional licenses which users will be
allowed to use, in addition to the licenses
they have purchased. This allows your users
to not be denied service when in a
“temporary overdraft” state. Usage above
the license limit will be reported by the
SAMreport reporting tool.
PLATFORMS=”...” Usage is limited to the listed platforms.
(v5.11+ only).
SN=serial_num Serial number, used to identify FEATURE or
INCREMENT lines.
START= Start date (FLEXlm v6 or later only).
dd-mmm-yyyy
SUPERSEDE= If this appears, all licenses issued before the
”f1 f2 ...” date specified in ISSUED= are superseded
by this line and become ineffective.
USER_BASED[=n] Users must be specified in INCLUDE
statements in the end-user options file, and
the number of users are limited to num_lic,
or the number specified in =n.
VENDOR_STRING= Same as “vendor_str” above, but in
”...” keyword=value pair syntax.

License File Format
The following attributes can be changed or deleted by end users. This is

indicated by a lowercase keyword.
asset_info= Additional information provided by the license

”...” administrator for asset management.
ck=nnn A checksum, useful with the lmcksum utility,
which will verify that the license has been entered
correctly by the end user.
dist_info= Additional information provided by the software
”...” distributor.
user_info= Additional information provided by the license
”...” administrator.
vendor_info= Additional information provided by the software
”...” vendor.
Examples:
FEATURE xyz_app xyzd 2.300 31-dec-2005 20 123456789012 “xyz”
INCREMENT f1 xyzd 1.000 1-jan-0 5 901234567890 \
HOSTID=INTERNET=195.186.*.* NOTICE=”Licensed to XYZ corp”
3.2.5 PACKAGE Lines

The purpose of the PACKAGE line is to support two different licensing needs:
• To license a product SUITE, or
• To provide a more efficient way of distributing a license file that has a large
number of features, which largely share the same FEATURE line
arguments.
A PACKAGE line, by itself, does not license anything—it requires a matching
FEATURE/INCREMENT line to license the whole package. A PACKAGE
line can be shipped by your software vendor with a product, independent of any
licenses. Later, when you purchase a license for that package, one or more
corresponding FEATURE/INCREMENT lines will enable the PACKAGE
line.
31 The License File

License File Format
Example:
PACKAGE package vendor pkg_version COMPONENTS=pkg_list \
[OPTIONS=SUITE] SIGN=pkg_sign
where:
package Name of the package. The corresponding

FEATURE/INCREMENT line must have the same
name.
vendor Name of the vendor daemon that supports this
package.
pkg_version Version of the package. If specified, the enabling
FEATURE/INCREMENT line must have the same
version.
pkg_sign License key or SIGN= signature.
pkg_list List of package components. The format is:
feature[:version[:num_lic]]
Packages must consist of at least one component.
Version and count are optional, and if left out,
their values come from the corresponding
FEATURE/INCREMENT line. num_lic is only
legal if OPTIONS=SUITE is not set—in this case
the resulting number of licenses will be num_lic
on the COMPONENTS line multiplied by the
number of licenses in the
FEATURE/INCREMENT line. Examples:
COMPONENTS=”comp1 comp2 comp3 comp4”
COMPONENTS=”comp1:1.5 comp2 comp3:2.0:4”

License File Format
OPTIONS=SUITE This is what distinguishes a package suite from a

package used to ease distribution.
With OPTIONS=SUITE, the corresponding feature
of the same name as the package is checked out in
addition to the component feature being checked
out.
If OPTIONS=SUITE is not set, then the
corresponding feature of the same name as the
package is removed once the package is enabled;
is not checked out when a component feature is
checked out.
Examples:
PACKAGE suite xyzd 1.0 3B24B2F508CB \
COMPONENTS=”comp1 comp2” OPTIONS=SUITE
FEATURE suite xyzd 1.0 1-jan-0 5 4193E6ABCCCB
This is a typical OPTIONS=SUITE example. There are two features, “comp1”

and “comp2,” which are each version 1.0, each with five non-expiring licenses
available. When “comp1” or “comp2” is checked out, “suite” will also be
checked out.
PACKAGE suite xyzd 1.0 2CBF44FCB9C1 \
COMPONENTS=”c1:1.5:2 c2:3.0:4”
FEATURE suite xyzd 1.0 1-jan-2005 3 321E78A17EC1 SN=123
In this example, the component version overrides the feature version, and the
number of licenses available for any component is the product of the three
licenses for “suite” and the number of licenses for that component. The result
is equivalent to:
FEATURE c1 xyzd 1.5 1-jan-2005 6 0D3AD5F26BEC SN=123
FEATURE c2 xyzd 3.0 1-jan-2005 12 EB16C5AE61F0 SN=123
With FLEXlm v6 (or later) applications only the PACKAGE lines can be stored
in a separate file which need never be edited.
33 The License File

Sample License File
3.2.6 UPGRADE Lines

UPGRADE feature vendor from_feat_version to_feat_version \
exp_date num_lic [options ... ] SIGN=sign
All the data is the same as for a FEATURE or INCREMENT line, with the
addition of the from_feat_version field. An UPGRADE line removes up
to the number of licenses specified from any old version (>=
from_feat_version) and creates a new version with that same number of
licenses.
For example, the two lines:
INCREMENT f1 xyzd 1.000 1-jan-2005 5 SIGN=9BFAC0316462
UPGRADE f1 xyzd 1.000 2.000 1-jan-2005 2 SIGN=1B9A308CC0F7
would result in three licenses of v1.0 of “f1” and two licenses of v2.0 of “f1.”
An UPGRADE line will operate on the closest preceding FEATURE or
INCREMENT line with a version number that is >= from_feat_version,
and < to_feat_version.
Note that UPGRADE lines do not work for node-locked, uncounted licenses
before v6.
3.3 Sample License File

This is an example of a license file for a single vendor with two features.
SERVER excellent_server 17007ea8 1700
DAEMON xyzd /etc/xyzd
FEATURE xyz_app1 xyzd 1.000 01-jan-2005 10 1EF890030EAB
FEATURE xyz_app2 xyzd 1.000 01-jan-2005 10 084561FE98B3
The license file above would allow the license server “excellent_server” with
the hostid “17007ea8” to serve ten floating licenses for “xyz_app1” and
“xyz_app2” to any user on the network.
3.4 Types of License Files

License files are created by the software vendor. License files can specify
floating (concurrent) usage, node-locked (both counted and uncounted), and
any combination of floating, counted, and uncounted.

Types of License Files
3.4.1 Floating (Concurrent) Licenses

A floating license means anyone on the network can use the licensed software,
up to the limit specified in the license file (also referred to as concurrent usage
or network licensing). Floating licenses have no hostids on the individual
FEATURE lines. Floating licenses requires an lmgrd and a vendor daemon to
be running to count the concurrent usage of the licenses.
An example of a license file that provides floating licenses is:
SERVER lulu 17001234 1700
FEATURE f1 xyzd 1.00 1-jan-2005 2 key1 ""
This license file specifies that two licenses for feature “f1,” six licenses for
feature “f2,” and one license for feature “f3” are available anywhere on the
network that can access the license server “lulu.”
3.4.2 Node-Locked Licenses
Node-locking means the licensed software can only be used on one node. A
node-locked license has a hostid on any FEATURE line that is node-locked to
a particular host. There are two types of node-locked licenses; uncounted and
counted.
If the number of licenses is set to 0, then the license is uncounted and unlimited
use is permitted on the specified node. This configuration does not require an
lmgrd or a vendor daemon because it is not going to count the concurrent
usage of the features.
The following license file allows unlimited usage of feature “f1” on the nodes
with hostids of “12001234” and “1700ab12”:
FEATURE f1 xyzd 1.000 1-jan-2005 0 key1 "" 12001234
FEATURE f1 xyzd 1.000 1-jan-2005 0 key2 "" 1700ab12
Alternately, in FLEXlm v5.0 or later, these two FEATURE lines could have
been issued by your software vendor with a hostid list:
FEATURE f1 xyzd 1.000 1-jan-2005 0 key HOSTID="12001234 1700ab12"
If these were the only FEATURE lines in this license file, no lmgrd daemon
would be necessary and you should not start one.
35 The License File

Decimal Format
The following license file allows three licenses for feature “f1” to be run, but
only on the node with hostid “1300ab43.” In this case, the daemons should be
run on the same node that runs the software, since there is no reason to run the
daemons on another node.
SERVER lulu 1300ab43 1700
FEATURE f1 xyzd 1.00 1-jan-2005 3 key HOSTID=1300ab43
3.4.3 Mixed Node-Locked and Floating Licenses

Uncounted node-locked and concurrent usage licenses can be mixed in the
same license file.
The following license file allows unlimited use of feature “f1” on nodes
“17001111” and “17002222,” while allowing two other licenses for feature
“f1” to be used anywhere else on the network:
SERVER lulu 17001234 1700
DAEMON xyzd C:\flexlm\xyzd.exe
FEATURE f1 xyzd 1.00 1-jan-2005 0 key1 HOSTID=17001111
FEATURE f1 xyzd 1.00 1-jan-2005 0 key2 HOSTID=17002222
FEATURE f1 xyzd 1.00 1-jan-2005 2 key3
This configuration requires an lmgrd and a vendor daemon because the

concurrent usage of the two licenses on the third FEATURE line is counted.
3.5 Decimal Format

The decimal format was introduced in v6. Users with older products can still
use the decimal format, but they will require a copy of the lminstall
command (which is part of lmutil). The lminstall utility allows the user
to type in a decimal line, which is then converted to the readable format, and
saved in the specified location. The mixed node-locked and floating example
above looks as follows in decimal format:
xyzd-f1-01761-55296-37046-04544-00017-06551-18072-57346-18754-136
xyzd-f1-01761-55296-37046-08896-00034-235
xyzd-f1-00481-55296-17590-2
A simple demo license in readable format:

FEATURE f1 xyzd 1.00 1-jan-2005 0 key1 HOSTID=DEMO
converted to decimal:
xyzd-f1-00737-55296-1825

License File Order
Note that by default lminstall converts to v6 format. It can convert to a

format compatible with older versions by using lminstall -overfmt 2 (or
3, 4, 5, 5.1, 6, 7, or 7.1, depending on the FLEXlm version).
3.6 License File Order

In some cases, the ordering of lines in a license file can be crucial. Version 7+
vendor daemons and clients automatically internally sort the lines so that in
most cases the optimal result is achieved. For earlier versions of FLEXlm, note
the following suggestions, which are all based on the fact the checkouts are
attempted on lines in the order they appear in the license file:
1. Place FEATURE lines before INCREMENT lines for the same
feature.
The rule regarding FEATURE lines is that only the first counted
FEATURE line is observed by the license server, and that if there is a
FEATURE line and INCREMENT lines, the FEATURE line must appear
first. (A few large, older FLEXlm-licensed companies have FEATURE
lines that behave identically to INCREMENT lines, and only the rules
applying to INCREMENT apply to them.)
2. Where multiple counted FEATURE lines exist for the same feature,
make sure the desired FEATURE line appears first.
All but the first is ignored.
3. Place node-locked, uncounted lines before floating lines for the same
FEATURE.
Otherwise, the floating license may be consumed when a node-locked
would have been used, resulting in denial for other users.
4. The placement of a USE_SERVER line affects behavior.
A USE_SERVER line is recommended. Normally, the USE_SERVER line
is placed immediately after the SERVER line. However, if there are
uncounted licenses which you don’t want to fail if the server is unavailable,
these should be placed at the top of the file, with the USE_SERVER line
following them. This only works, however, if each user that needs the
uncounted license has direct access to a current copy of the file. The
advantage to placing USE_SERVER right after the SERVER line is users
don’t need up-to-date copies of the license file.
37 The License File

Chapter 4
Multiple License Files
Since more than 2000 vendors have chosen FLEXlm as their license manager,
chances are good that you will have to administer FLEXlm licenses from more
than one vendor or multiple products from the same vendor.
4.1 Overview of Combining License Files

When you are running FLEXlm-licensed products from multiple vendors, you
may need to take steps to prevent licensing conflicts during installation. There
are three ways you can accomplish this:
• Multiple license server nodes, each running one lmgrd and one license file
• One license server node running one lmgrd and several license files
• One license server node running multiple lmgrds and multiple license
files
Note that before v6, each lmgrd could read only a single license file. In the
first option mentioned above, you will have more license servers to monitor; in
the third option you have only one server but multiple lmgrds to administer.
If all applications and vendor daemons are FLEXlm v6+, lmgrd can process
multiple license files, even when the hostids in each license file are different,
so long as they refer to the same node. For example, on UNIX:
lmgrd -c license_file_path_1:license_file_path_2 ...
Your product’s license file(s) define the license server(s) by host name and
hostid in the SERVER line(s) in the license file. If the license files for two or
more products contain identical hostids on the SERVER line(s), then these files
can be combined. If the license files for two products contain different hostids
on a SERVER line, then the license servers for those products will be running
on different nodes and the license files cannot be combined.
If you have two or more products whose license servers run on the same node
(as specified by the SERVER lines in the license files), you may be able to
combine the license files into a single license file. If the SERVER lines in those

Overview of Combining License Files
files have identical hostids, then you can combine the files into a single file. If
the SERVER lines have different hostids, then you must keep the license files
separate.
More precisely, you can combine two license files under the following
conditions:
1. The number of SERVER lines in each file is the same.
2. The hostid field of each SERVER line in one file exactly matches the
hostid field of each SERVER line in the other file.
Some possible reasons license files may not be compatible are:
• License files are set up to run on different server nodes, so hostids are
different.
• One file is set up for single server (has only one SERVER line), the other
is set up for redundant servers (has multiple SERVER lines).
• One vendor uses a custom hostid algorithm, so the hostids on the SERVER
lines are different, even though the files are for the same machine.
If your license files are compatible as described above, then you have the
option of combining license files and running a single lmgrd, as described
below in Section 4.1.1, “Combining License Files from Multiple Vendors.” If
the license files are not compatible, then you must keep the license files
separate and run separate copies of lmgrd for each license file, as described in
Section 4.1.3, “Using Separate License Files on the Same Server Node.”
Note that you are not required to combine compatible license files; you always
have the option of running separate lmgrds, and there is virtually no
performance or system-load penalty for running separate lmgrd processes.
4.1.1 Combining License Files from Multiple Vendors
If your license files are compatible, you can combine them with any text editor.
To combine license files, read all of the compatible license files into one file,
then edit out the extra SERVER lines so that only one set of SERVER lines
remains. Write out this data, and you have your combined license file. If you
combine license files from multiple vendors, it is a good idea to keep a copy of
the combined license file in each vendor’s default license file location. This
way, users can avoid having to set LM_LICENSE_FILE, because each package
finds it’s license information in the default place. On UNIX, you can do this
with a symbolic link from each default location to the location of the combined
license file.
39 Multiple License Files

Overview of Combining License Files
4.1.2 FLEXlm Version Component Compatibility

When you combine license files for two different FLEXlm-licensed products,
it may be the case that those products do not use the same version of FLEXlm.
FLEXlm is designed to handle this situation. There are two basic compatibility
rules for FLEXlm:
• A newer lmgrd can be used with an older vendor daemon, but a newer
vendor daemon might not work properly with an older lmgrd.
• A newer vendor daemon (or lmgrd) can be used with an older client
program, but a newer client program might not work properly with an
older vendor daemon.
From these two compatibility rules come the simple rules for selecting which
version of administration tools to use:
1. Always use the newest version of lmgrd and the newest version of each
vendor daemon.
2. Use the newest FLEXlm utilities.
For specific application programs, you can use either the new or the old version
(of course, the vendor daemon for that application must be at least as new as
the application itself). See also Section G.1, “Version Compatibility and
Components.”
4.1.3 Using Separate License Files on the Same Server Node
You must run a separate copy of lmgrd for each license file. When you run
multiple copies of lmgrd, there are two details to remember:
1. The port number on the SERVER line of each license file must be unique.
You can use a standard text editor to change the port number in each
license file so that they are all different.
2. You must make sure that you are using a compatible version of lmgrd
when you start it up for a particular license file. This can be done by using
an explicit path to lmgrd.
When running client programs (such as a licensed application), you can set the
LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable to point to multiple license files.
For example, you may have a license file from vendor “ABC” and a license file
from vendor “XYZ” with incompatible servers. You can place the license file
from vendor “ABC” into:
/usr/flexlm/abc.lic
and the license file from vendor “XYZ” into:

/usr/flexlm/xyz.lic

Using LM_LICENSE_FILE License File List
then set the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable to point to both of them.

Each name in LM_LICENSE_FILE should be separated by a colon (“:”) on
UNIX systems, a semicolon (“;”) on Windows and Windows/NT systems (in
FLEXlm v4.1, a comma was used on Windows and NT), and a space (“ “) on
VMS systems.
In the C shell:
setenv LM_LICENSE_FILE /usr/flexlm/abc.lic:/usr/flexlm/xyz.lic
In the Korn and Bourne shells:

LM_LICENSE_FILE=/usr/flexlm/abc.lic:/usr/flexlm/xyz.lic
export LM_LICENSE_FILE
4.2 Using LM_LICENSE_FILE License File List

If products use different license server nodes, each set of license servers
requires separate license files. (When multiple software vendors use the same
set of license server nodes, the technique described above in Section 4.1,
“Overview of Combining License Files,” can be used to combine license files.)
The resulting (multiple) license files can be installed in convenient locations.
On UNIX you would set the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable as
follows:
setenv LM_LICENSE_FILE lfpath1:lfpath2:...
where lfpath1 is the path to the first license file, lfpath2 is the path to the
second license file, etc.
Note: Use a colon (“ : ”) to separate the license file names on UNIX, on Windows
and Windows/NT use a semicolon (“ ; ”), and on VMS use a space (“ “).
Each application queries each license file in the order it is listed in

LM_LICENSE_FILE. If the license server serving the license file listed in
lfpath1 is unreachable, the other files listed in LM_LICENSE_FILE allow a
user to obtain a license from another server. lfpathn can also be port@host,
using the port number and host name from the SERVER line in the license file.
See also:
• Section 5.3.1, “Redundancy via License File List”
• Appendix C, “FLEXlm Environment Variables”
• Section 3.1.2, “Setting the Path with an Environment Variable”
41 Multiple License Files

Chapter 5
Selecting Server Nodes
This chapter helps you decide which nodes to use as license server nodes.
5.1 Resources Used by the Server

This section discusses the resources used by the license server. When you
select a server node, you may need to take into account the system limits on
these resources. For small numbers of licenses (under about 100), most of these
items should not be a problem on any workstation.
5.1.1 Sockets
When using TCP, a single vendor daemon can support as many users as the per-
process system limit for file descriptors, which ranges from 256 on SunOS 4.x
to 4000 on DEC Alpha. When no more file descriptors are available to a
daemon, additional vendor daemons are spawned to allow for extra file
descriptors, though this is not recommended. When using UDP, there is no
limit to the number of end users per vendor daemon process, because they can
share a single socket in the vendor daemon (UDP has other drawbacks, and
TCP is preferred). If there are more than 250 concurrent clients from a SunOS
vendor daemon, it may be a good idea to move the server to a different OS,
since all other OSs support more file descriptors. If there are more than 1000
concurrent clients being supported by a single vendor daemon, then it’s
probably good to split the license file into more than one file, from different
servers, to lighten the networking traffic (which will require the ISV to agree
to issue new licenses). Clients can check out licenses from multiple servers
using a license file list via the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable.
Each client connected to a license server uses one socket. The total number of
sockets used by the license server programs is slightly larger than the total
number of simultaneous clients.

Resources Used by the Server
On older SCO systems, the default number of sockets may be set fairly low; if
you choose to run a server on such a machine, you may need to reconfigure
your kernel to have more sockets.
The number of sockets available for Windows 95 clients is about 60. In
general, NT is preferred for server systems, where there is no such limit, and
the operating system is better designed for server processes.
5.1.2 CPU Time
For small numbers of clients, the license servers use very little CPU time. The
servers might have only a few seconds of CPU time after many days.
For a large number of clients (who are each exchanging heartbeat messages
with the server), or for high checkout/checkin activity levels (hundreds per
second), the amount of CPU time consumed by the server may start to become
significant, although, even here, CPU usage is normally not high. In this case,
you may need to ensure that the server machine you select will have enough
CPU cycles to spare.
Note: GLOBEtrotter Software has rarely encountered a situation where CPU cycles
were an issue.
5.1.3 Disk Space

The only output files created by the license servers are the debug and report log
files. The report log files are used to generate accurate usage reports by
SAMreport. These log files contain one line for each checkout and one line for
each checkin. If you have a lot of license activity, these log files will grow very
large. You will need to consider where to put these files and how often to delete
or prune them. The license administrator can opt not to log messages to the
debug log file if disk space is at a premium. See Section 6.2.10, “NOLOG,” and
Section 6.2.11, “REPORTLOG.”
Note that the log files should be local files on the server machine(s) to avoid
networking dependencies.
SWITCHING OUTPUT OF THE DEBUG LOG FILE ON UNIX SYSTEMS
On UNIX, the debug log file output can be switched after the daemons are
running. The technique to do this involves piping the stdout of lmgrd to a shell
script that appends to the file for each line.
43 Selecting Server Nodes

Remote Mounted Disks
This is done as follows:

Instead of the “normal” startup:
lmgrd > LOG
Start lmgrd this way:

lmgrd | sh -c ’while read line; do echo "$line" >> LOG ; done’
With this startup method, the output file LOG can be renamed and a new log file
will be created. You could even make LOG a symbolic link and change the value
of the link to switch the log file.
5.1.4 Memory
The FLEXlm daemons use little memory. On SunOS, lmgrd uses
approximately160 KB and the vendor daemons use approximately 180 KB
each, although memory usage increases in the vendor daemon with the size of
the license file and the number of concurrent users.
5.1.5 Network Bandwidth
FLEXlm sends relatively small amounts of data across the network. Each
transaction, such as a checkout or checkin, is typically satisfied with less than
1 KB of data transferred. This means that FLEXlm licensing can be effectively
run over slow networks (such as dial-up SLIP lines) for small numbers of
clients.
For a large number of clients (hundreds), each of which will be exchanging
heartbeat messages with the vendor daemon, the network bandwidth used may
start to become significant. In this case you should run client and server on the
same local area network, which may require splitting licenses between two
files for two servers. Users can use a license file list in the LM_LICENSE_FILE
environment variable to have effective access to both servers.
In high-traffic networks, with FLEXlm clients older than v5, you may also
want to avoid setting LM_LICENSE_FILE to a port@host address. Instead,
the license administrator should place a copy of the license file in a file system
local to the application. See Section 3.1, “Specifying Location of the License
File.”
5.2 Remote Mounted Disks

GLOBEtrotter Software recommends that you do not use remote mounted
disks when you run the license server. In other words, we recommend that
lmgrd, the vendor daemons, the license file, and the debug and report log files
are all on locally mounted disks. If any of these files is on a remote mounted

Redundant Servers
disk, you double the points of failure which could lead to a temporary loss of
all of your licenses. When all files are mounted locally, the licenses will be
available as long as the server machine is up; but when the files are on a
different machine, then the loss of either the license server machine or the file
server machine will cause the licenses to be unavailable.
5.3 Redundant Servers

If all the end-user data is on a single file server, then there is no need for
redundant servers, and GLOBEtrotter Software recommends the use of a single
server node for the FLEXlm daemons. If the end user’s data is split among two
or more server nodes and work is still possible when one of these nodes goes
down or off the network, then multiple server nodes can be employed. In all
cases, an effort should be made to select stable systems as server nodes; in
other words, do not pick systems that are frequently rebooted or shut down for
one reason or another. Redundant license server nodes can be any supported
server nodes—it is not required that they be the same architecture or operating
system.
FLEXlm supports two methods of redundancy: redundancy via a license file
list in the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable and a set of three
redundant license servers.
With LM_LICENSE_FILE list redundancy, each one of a group of license
servers serves a subset of the total licenses. The end user sets
LM_LICENSE_FILE to a list of license files, where each license file refers to
one of the license servers. The application then tries each server in the list, in
order, until it succeeds or gets to the end of the list.
With three-server redundancy, if any two of the three license servers are up and
running (two out of three license servers is referred to as a quorum), the system
is functional and hands out its total complement of licenses.
See also Section 4.2, “Using LM_LICENSE_FILE License File List.”
5.3.1 Redundancy via License File List
This is best explained by example. If ten licenses are desired for both “f1” and
“f2,” the ISV would issue two sets of licenses with a count of 5 for each of “f1”
and “f2.” The server nodes (unlike three-server redundancy) can be physically
distant.

Redundant Servers
The license files would look like:

License 1 for “chicago”
SERVER chicago 17007ea8 1700
DAEMON xyzd /etc/mydaemon
FEATURE f1 xyzd 1.000 01-jan-2005 5 26C7DD9C0186
FEATURE f2 xyzd 1.000 01-jan-2005 5 8CE46C57041D
License 2 for “tokyo”

SERVER tokyo 17007ea8 1700
DAEMON xyzd /etc/mydaemon
FEATURE f1 xyzd 1.000 01-jan-2005 5 16BE40E1D98D
FEATURE f2 xyzd 1.000 01-jan-2005 5 6DB6F3E402DF
The user in Chicago could set LM_LICENSE_FILE to:

1700@chicago:1700@tokyo
The user in Tokyo could set LM_LICENSE_FILE to:

1700@tokyo:1700@chicago
The application attempts the first server in the list, and if that fails for any
reason, the second server is tried.
5.3.2 Three-Server Redundancy
These three-server redundant servers should have excellent communications
and should be on the same subnet. Often this means that the three servers
should be located physically close to each other. This form of redundancy
requires that the servers exchange heartbeats periodically, and poor
communications can cause poor performance. You should never configure
redundant servers with slow communications or dial-up links.
Three-server redundancy does not provide load-balancing. Use
LM_LICENSE_FILE list instead for this type of redundancy. This is because
with three-server redundancy, only one of the three servers is “master,” capable
of issuing licenses. Since all clients must contact the “master,” all clients must
have reliable networking to a single node.
5.3.3 Comparing Three-Server to License File List
ARE THERE ANY DRAWBACKS TO USING THE LICENSE FILE LIST FOR REDUNDANCY?
Yes. By default, once a license job has successfully checked out a license from
one host, all subsequent checkouts must be satisfied from the same host. If the
application requires more than one license, this could result in a license denial
when the license is available on another server. An application can bypass this

Counted vs. Uncounted Licenses
restriction if it is coded with the use of multiple FLEXlm license jobs. Only
your application vendor can tell you if their application is programmed in this
manner.
If the application supports license queueing, all licenses are only queued from
the first host on the list.
Finally, if one server becomes unavailable, some licenses will be unavailable.
WHEN IS IT RECOMMENDED TO USE A LICENSE FILE LIST FOR REDUNDANCY RATHER
THAN TRUE REDUNDANT SERVERS?
• When there’s less system administration available to monitor license
servers.
• When load-balancing is needed for clients located far apart, e.g., London
and Tokyo. You can make servers available locally, with remote servers
available as backup.
• License file list is more forgiving if you lose quorum.
• License file list is not limited to three servers (any number will work).
• Clients do not require reliable networking to a single node with license file
list, so this is recommended where networking itself requires redundancy.
5.4 Counted vs. Uncounted Licenses

The license file determines whether a license server is needed. If all the
FEATURE (or INCREMENT) lines have a license count of 0 (unlimited) or
“uncounted” (FLEXlm v6 or later only), then no server is needed. This type of
license is called uncounted. Alternatively, if any FEATURE lines have a non-
zero license count, then a server is required to count those licenses. If a vendor
wants to use FLEXlm without a server, they must issue uncounted licenses.
With FLEXlm v5 or later, the license server can serve uncounted licenses as
well. This is done so that the report log file will include transactions for all
license requests, which can then be reported on by SAMreport. To do this,
include a SERVER line in the license file, and put the USE_SERVER line
immediately after the SERVER line. The vendor daemon will serve the
uncounted licenses, and the USE_SERVER line indicates to applications that
they will be authorized by the server.

Chapter 6
The Options File
The options file allows the license administrator to control various operating
parameters of FLEXlm. Users can be identified by their user name, host name,
display, IP address, or PROJECT (which is set with the LM_PROJECT
environment variable).
Specifically, the license administrator can:
• Allow the use of features
• Deny the use of features
• Reserve licenses
• Control the amount of information logged about license usage
• Enable a report log file
Options files allow you, as the license administrator, to be as secure or open
with licenses as you like.
Lines in the options file were limited to 200 characters prior to FLEXlm v3.0.
In v3.0 and later, the line length is 2048 characters. FLEXlm v4.0 allows the
“\” character as a continuation character in options file lines.
Identifying users by LM_PROJECT in the options file requires a v5+ application
and v7+ vendor daemon.
6.1 Creating an Options File

To create an options file:
1. Use the appropriate options listed in Section 6.2, “Options File Syntax,” to
create the options file using any text editor. You can put the options file
anywhere; however, we recommend that the options file for vendor “XYZ”
(whose vendor daemon is xyzd) be placed in:
UNIX: /a/b/xyzd/licenses/xyzd.opt
Windows: C:\a\b\xyzd\licenses\xyzd.opt

Options File Syntax
2. Add the path to the options file in the license file as the fourth field on the
DAEMON line for the application’s vendor daemon. For example:
DAEMON xyzd /etc/xyzd /a/b/xyzd/licenses/xyzd.opt
would enable the xyzd vendor daemon to look at the specified options file.
In FLEXlm v5 or later, you can put options= before the path. In FLEXlm
v6 or later, adding the options path to the license file is optional. Instead,
name the file vendor.opt, where vendor is the vendor daemon name,
and place it in the same directory as the license used by lmgrd, and it will
automatically be used at server startup.
6.2 Options File Syntax

Below is an overview of the options file syntax. See Section 6.5, “Options File
Examples,” for examples and additional information.
Each line of the file controls one option. The options are:
EXCLUDE Deny a user access to a feature.

EXCLUDEALL Deny a user access to all features served by this
vendor daemon.
GROUP Define a group of users for use with any options.
HOST_GROUP Define a group of hosts for use with any options
(v4.0+).
INCLUDE Allow a user to use a feature.
INCLUDEALL Allow a user to use all features served by this
vendor daemon.
LINGER Cause licenses to be held by the vendor daemon
for a period after the application checks them in or
exits.
MAX Limit usage for a particular feature/group—
prioritizes usage among users.
MAX_OVERDRAFT Limit overdraft usage to less than the amount
specified in the license.
49 The Options File

Options File Syntax
NOLOG Turn off logging of certain items in the debug log

file.
REPORTLOG Specify that a report log file suitable for use by the
SAMreport license usage reporting tool be written.
RESERVE Reserve licenses for a user.
TIMEOUT Specify idle timeout for a feature, returning it to
the free pool for use by another user.
TIMEOUTALL Set timeout on all features.
You can include comments in your options file by starting each comment line
with a pound sign “#.” Everything in an options file is case sensitive. Be sure
that user names and feature names, for example, are entered correctly.
FEATURE SPECIFICATION
Starting with FLEXlm v5, you can specify options for a particular line of a
given feature name, as follows:
feature:keyword=value
For example:
f1:VERSION=2.0
You can specify a feature by any of the following fields:

VERSION=, HOSTID=, EXPDATE=, KEY=, SIGN=, VENDOR_STRING=,
ISSUER=, NOTICE=, dist_info=, user_info=, asset_info=
In FLEXlm v5.11 or later, you can use a package name in place of a feature
name, and the option will apply to all of the components in the package.
The following option keywords restrict who may use licenses or where licenses
may be used: EXCLUDE, EXCLUDEALL, INCLUDE, INCLUDEALL,
MAX, and RESERVE. These options take a type argument, which specifies
whether the restriction is based on USER, HOST, DISPLAY, INTERNET, or
PROJECT:
• USER—UNIX user name of the user executing the program
• HOST—machine where the application is executing

Options File Syntax
• DISPLAY—display where the application is displayed

DISPLAY is often confusing. Historically, the FLEXlm default on UNIX
was /dev/ttyxx (which is always /dev/tty when an application is run
in the background). Some newer applications now have it set to the X-
Display name.
• INTERNET—IP address of the machine where the application is
executing (wildcards can be used in the IP address)
• PROJECT—LM_PROJECT environment variable set by the user who is
executing the program (requires v5+ client and v7+ vendor daemon)
On PCs, the USER, HOST and DISPLAY name are all set to the PC’s host
name.
The types listed above take a list of members, separated by spaces. For
example:
EXCLUDE coolsoft USER joe barbara susan
Other valid types are GROUP and HOST_GROUP. These allow you to define
a group of users or hosts on a separate line in the options file, then use those
group names instead of an explicit list. For example:
GROUP stars joe barbara susan
EXCLUDE coolsoft GROUP stars
6.2.1 EXCLUDE
EXCLUDE feature[:keyword=value] type {list | group_name}
Excludes a list or pre-defined group of users, etc. from the list of who is
allowed to use the feature. Excluded users will not be allowed to use the
feature. EXCLUDE overrides INCLUDE.
feature Name of the feature being affected.

type One of USER, HOST, DISPLAY, INTERNET,
PROJECT, GROUP, or HOST_GROUP.
list List of type members to exclude.
group_name Name of the group to exclude.
To exclude the user “hank” from the list of users able to use feature “f1”:
EXCLUDE f1 USER hank
51 The Options File

Options File Syntax
6.2.2 EXCLUDEALL
EXCLUDEALL type {list | group_name}
Excludes a list or pre-defined group of users, etc. from the list of who is
allowed to use all features served by this vendor daemon.

list List of type members to exclude.
group_name Name of the group to exclude.
To exclude any user on the machine “chaos” from using all features served by
this vendor daemon:
EXCLUDEALL HOST chaos
6.2.3 GROUP
GROUP group_name user_list
Defines a group of users for use in INCLUDE, INCLUDEALL, EXCLUDE,

EXCLUDEALL, and RESERVE option lines.
group_name Name of the group being defined.

user_list List of user names in that group.
To define the group “Hackers” consisting of “bob,” “howard,” and “james”:

GROUP Hackers bob howard james
Note: In FLEXlm v3.0, multiple GROUP lines will add all the specified users into the
group. Pre-v3.0 FLEXlm daemons do not allow multiple GROUP lines to
concatenate—the last GROUP line would define the GROUP.
Note: In FLEXlm v4.0 or later, USER_GROUP is an alias for GROUP.

Options File Syntax
6.2.4 HOST_GROUP
HOST_GROUP group_name host_list
Defines a group of hosts for use in INCLUDE, INCLUDEALL, EXCLUDE,

EXCLUDEALL, and RESERVE option lines. Multiple HOST_GROUP lines
will add all the specified hosts into the group.
group_name Name of the group being defined.

host_list List of host names in that group.
To define the host group “Pacific” consisting of “tokyo,” “seattle,” and

“auckland”:
HOST_GROUP Pacific tokyo seattle auckland
6.2.5 INCLUDE
INCLUDE feature[:keyword=value] type {list | group_name}
Includes a list or pre-defined group of users, etc. in the list of who is allowed
to use the feature. Anyone not in an INCLUDE statement will not be allowed
to use that feature. EXCLUDE overrides INCLUDE.
feature Name of the feature being affected.

list List of type members to include.
group_name Name of the group to include.
To include user “bob” in the list of users able to use feature “f1”:
INCLUDE f1 USER bob
Note: INCLUDE is required for USER_BASED or HOST_BASED features. The

system administrator specifies which users are allowed to use the product, via
INCLUDE, and the license limits the number of users that can be INCLUDEd.
53 The Options File

Options File Syntax
6.2.6 INCLUDEALL
INCLUDEALL type {list | group_name}
Includes a list or pre-defined group of users, etc. in the list of who is allowed
to use all features served by this vendor daemon. Anyone not in an
INCLUDEALL statement will not be allowed to use these features.

list List of type members to include.
group_name Name of the group to include.
To allow the user “jane” to use all features served by this vendor daemon:
INCLUDEALL USER jane
6.2.7 LINGER
LINGER feature[:keyword=value] seconds
Rarely used. This causes the daemon to “hold on” to the license for feature
for seconds after the application checks the license in or exits. This could be
useful for short-duration programs which will be used many times in a row by
the same user, to ensure that the user will be able to re-acquire the license
repeatedly. On the other hand, other users have to wait until the first user is
completely finished, plus a linger interval. This is useful only if the application
uses duplicate grouping. Otherwise, LINGER will cause you to use extra
licenses. Contact your software vendor for information about how they
implemented duplicate grouping in their product.
If license lingering is set and lmremove is used to reclaim the license,
lmremove will start, but not override, the license’s linger time.

Options File Syntax
6.2.8 MAX
(v5.11+ vendor daemon only.)
MAX num_lic feature[:keyword=value] type {list | group_name}
Limits usage for a group or user.
num_lic Usage limit for this user or group.

feature Feature this limit applies to.
list List of type members to limit.
group_name Name of the group to limit.
6.2.9 MAX_OVERDRAFT
MAX_OVERDRAFT feature[:keyword=value] num_lic
Limits OVERDRAFT license usage below the OVERDRAFT allowed by the

license file.
6.2.10 NOLOG
NOLOG { IN | OUT | DENIED | QUEUED }
Suppresses logging the selected type of event in the debug log file.
To turn off logging of checkins:
NOLOG IN
To turn off logging of checkouts and queued requests two separate NOLOG
lines are required:
NOLOG DENIED
NOLOG QUEUED
Note: License administrators might use this option to reduce the size of the debug log
file.
55 The Options File

Options File Syntax
6.2.11 REPORTLOG
REPORTLOG [+]report_log_path
REPORTLOG specifies the report log file for this vendor daemon. We
recommend preceding the report_log_path with a + character to append
logging entries, otherwise the file will be overwritten each time the daemon is
started.
Note: SAMreport, a separate product available from GLOBEtrotter, is used to

process FLEXlm report log files. SAMreport can process only report log files,
not debug log files.
REPORTING ON PROJECTS WITH LM_PROJECT

The SAMreport report writer can report on “projects.” A project is set up by
having all users working on a project set their LM_PROJECT environment
variable (or registry on Windows) to a string that describes the project.
SAMreport can then group usage by project, as defined by what LM_PROJECT
was set to when the application was run.
See also Appendix C, “FLEXlm Environment Variables.”
6.2.12 RESERVE
RESERVE num_lic feature[:keyword=value] type
{list | group_name}
Reserves licenses for a specific user.
num_lic Number of license to reserve for this user or

group.
feature Feature this reservation applies to.
list List of type members to reserve licenses for.
group_name Name of group to reserve licenses for.
To reserve one license of feature “f1” for user “mel”:

RESERVE 1 f1 USER mel

Options File Syntax
Note: Any licenses reserved for a user are dedicated to that user. Even when that user
is not actively using the license it will be unavailable to other users. However,
a RESERVEd license will not cause an overdraft to be reported by SAMreport
if the license is not actually in use.
6.2.13 TIMEOUT
TIMEOUT feature[:keyword=value] seconds
Sets the time after which an inactive license is reclaimed by the vendor
daemon.
feature Name of the feature.

seconds Number of seconds after which inactive license is
reclaimed.
To set the timeout for feature “f1” to one hour (3600 seconds):
TIMEOUT f1 3600
TIMEOUT checks in the licenses if the process has been “idle” for a period
longer than the specified time period. The daemon declares a process idle when
it has not heard from the process (the client sends heartbeats). The application
must explicitly declare itself idle for this to work, or (on UNIX) the application
must be stopped (^Z). That is, unless the application explicitly supports this
feature, it will not work. Contact your software vendor for information about
how they implemented this feature in their product.
The application vendor can also disable the timeout feature, in which case the
TIMEOUT option has no effect. The vendor can set a minimum value for the
timeout. If you specify a timeout value smaller than the minimum, the
minimum is used. The default minimum value is 900 seconds (15 minutes).
If you do not specify a timeout value in your options file, then there will be no
timeout for that feature. With a pre-v5 vendor daemon, licenses are only freed
by TIMEOUT when a new request for a license would require a license that
can be freed with TIMEOUT. With v5+, licenses are freed when they time out.
57 The Options File

How the Vendor Daemon Uses the Options File
6.2.14 TIMEOUTALL
(v5.11+ vendor daemon only.)
TIMEOUTALL seconds
Same as TIMEOUT, but applies to all features.
6.3 How the Vendor Daemon Uses the Options File

When the vendor daemon is started by lmgrd, the vendor daemon reads its
options file. There can only be one options file per vendor daemon and each
vendor daemon needs its own options file. lmreread does not cause the
vendor daemon to reread its options file; for any changes in the options file to
take effect, the vendor daemon must be restarted.
6.4 Rules of Precedence in Options Files

Before you can use options to utilize licenses effectively you must understand
the options file precedence. INCLUDE and EXCLUDE statements can be
combined in the same options file and control access to the same features.
When doing so, keep in mind the following:
• If there is only an EXCLUDE list, everyone who is not on the list will be
allowed to use the feature.
• If there is only an INCLUDE list, only those users on the list will be
allowed to use the feature.
• If neither list exists, everyone is allowed to use the feature.
• The EXCLUDE list is checked before the INCLUDE list; someone who is
on both lists will not be allowed to use the feature.
Once you create an INCLUDE or EXCLUDE list, everyone else is implicitly
“outside” the group. This feature allows you, as an administrator, the ability to
control licenses without having to explicitly list each user that you wish to
allow or deny access to. In other words, there are two approaches; you can
either:
• Give most users access and list only the exceptions, or
• Severely limit access and list only the those users that have access
privileges

Options File Examples
6.5 Options File Examples

The following information gives some examples of options files intended to
illustrate ways to effectively control access to your licenses.
6.5.1 Simple Options File Example
RESERVE 1 compile USER robert
RESERVE 3 compile HOST mainline
EXCLUDE compile USER lori
NOLOG QUEUED
This options file would:

• Reserve one license for the feature “compile” for the user “robert.”
• Reserve three licenses for the feature “compile” for anyone on a computer
with the host name “mainline.”
• Prevent the user “lori” from using the “compile” feature on any node on
the network.
• Cause QUEUED messages to be omitted from the debug log file.
The sum total of the licenses reserved must be less than or equal to the number
of licenses specified in the FEATURE line. In the example above, there must
be a minimum of four licenses on the “compile” FEATURE line. If fewer
licenses are available, only the first set of reservations (up to the license limit)
is used.
If this data were in file /a/b/xyzd/licenses/xyzd.opt, then you would
modify the license file DAEMON line as follows:
DAEMON xyzd /etc/xyzd /a/b/xyzd/licenses/xyzd.opt
6.5.2 Limiting Access for Multiple Users

Each INCLUDE, INCLUDEALL, EXCLUDE, EXCLUDEALL, and
RESERVE line must have a single user name (or group) listed. To affect more
than one user name create a GROUP. For example to exclude “bob,” “howard,”
and “james” from using the feature called “toothbrush” we could create the
following options file:
EXCLUDE toothbrush USER bob
EXCLUDE toothbrush USER howard
EXCLUDE toothbrush USER james
59 The Options File

However, there is an easier way. Create a GROUP and exclude the list of users
from using the feature. Like the previous example, the following options file
would exclude “bob,” “howard,” and “james” from using the feature called
“toothbrush”:
# First define the group "Hackers"
GROUP Hackers bob howard james
# Then exclude the group
EXCLUDE toothbrush GROUP Hackers
Now when you want to allow or deny access to any feature to that group, you
have an alias list to make it simple.
With a FLEXlm v4+ vendor daemon, you can use HOST_GROUP to allow,
deny, or reserve licenses for multiple hosts. For example, to exclude all users
logged in on the hosts “fred” and “barney” from using a feature called “f1,” add
these lines to your options file:
HOST_GROUP writers fred barney
EXCLUDE f1 HOST_GROUP writers
Note: See Section 6.2.3, “GROUP,” and Section 6.2.4, “HOST_GROUP,” for more
information about defining groups.
6.5.3 EXCLUDE Example

#First Define the group "painters"
GROUP painters picasso mondrian klee
EXCLUDE spell GROUP painters
EXCLUDE spell USER bob
EXCLUDE spell INTERNET 123.123.123.*

• Prevent the users “picasso,” “mondrian,” and “klee” from using the feature
“spell” on any machine on the network.
• Prevent the user “bob” from using the feature “spell” on any machine on
the network.
• Prevent any user logged into a host with an IP address in the range
123.123.123.0 through 123.123.123.255 from using the feature “spell.”
• Allow any other user, as long as they are not on the excluded IP addresses,
and they are not a member of the “painters” GROUP, and they are not
“bob,” to use feature “spell” (by implication).

Note that “bob” could have been added to the group “painters.” However,
“painters” might be used for some other purpose in the future so the license
administrator chose to handle “bob” as a special case here. In this case, the two
EXCLUDE statements concatenate to create a list of four users.
6.5.4 INCLUDE Example
INCLUDE paint USER picasso
INCLUDE paint USER mondrian
INCLUDE paint HOST bigbrush

• Allow the user “picasso” to use the feature “paint” on any machine on the
network.
• Allow the user “mondrian” to use the feature “paint” on any machine on
the network.
• Allow any user, as long as they are on the host “bigbrush,” to use feature
“paint.”
• Deny access to the feature “paint” to anyone except “picasso,”
“mondrian,” or anyone from the host “bigbrush” (by implication).
61 The Options File

Chapter 7
License Administration Tools
FLEXlm provides utilities for the license administrator to help manage the
licensing activities on the network. These utilities are:
• lmcksum (v2.4+) — Prints license checksums.
• lmdiag (v4.0+) — Diagnoses license checkout problems.
• lmdown — Gracefully shuts down all license daemons (both lmgrd and
all vendor daemons) on the license server node (or on all three nodes in the
case of three-server redundant servers).
• lmhostid — Reports the hostid of a system.
• lminstall — Converts license files between different formats.
• lmnewlog — Moves existing report log information to a new file name
and starts a new report log file with existing file name.
• lmremove — Releases a hung license to the pool of free licenses.
• lmreread — Causes the license daemon to reread the license file and start
any new vendor daemons.
• lmstat — Displays the status of a license server.
• lmswitchr — Switches the report log to a new file name.
• lmver — Reports the FLEXlm version of a library or binary file.
This chapter also contains command-line syntax for lmgrd.
7.1 Running Administration Tools

Beginning in FLEXlm v2.4, all FLEXlm utility programs (except lmgrd) are
packaged as a single executable called lmutil. lmutil can either be installed
as the individual commands (either by creating links to the individual
command names, or making copies of lmutil as the individual command
names), or the commands can be run as lmutil command, for example,
lmutil lmstat, or lmutil lmdown. On Windows systems, the lmutil

Universal lmutil Arguments
command forms of the commands are available. There is also a graphical user
interface for these commands on Windows—see Section 7.15, “License
Administration Tools—LMTOOLS for Windows.”
7.2 Universal lmutil Arguments

The following are valid arguments for all lmutil utilities:
-c license_file_path Most lmutil utilities need to know the

path to the license file. This can be
specified with a -c
license_file_path argument, or by
setting the LM_LICENSE_FILE
environment variable. Otherwise, the
default location is used. Version 7+
utilities also honor all
VENDOR_LICENSE_FILE environment
variables. Some utilities can take more
than one license file path in a license file
list separated by colons on UNIX and
semi-colons on Windows.
-v Prints the FLEXlm version of the utility.
-verbose Prints longer description for all errors
found. The output from the utilities may
be harder to read with this option, but is
useful for diagnostics. (v6+ only)
-e filename Redirects error message to a file. (v7+)
Note: The lmdown, lmremove, and lmreread commands are “privileged.” If you
have started lmgrd with the -2 -p switch, you must be a license administrator
to run any of these three utilities. A license administrator is a member of the
UNIX “lmadmin” group, or, if the “lmadmin” group does not exist, a member
of group 0. In addition, lmgrd -x can disable lmdown and/or lmremove.
63 License Administration Tools

lmcksum
7.3 lmcksum
The lmcksum program (FLEXlm v2.4 or later) will perform a checksum of a
license file. This is useful to verify data entry errors at your location. lmcksum
will print a line-by-line checksum for the file as well as an overall file
checksum. lmcksum takes the -k switch to force the encryption key checksum
to be case-sensitive.
lmcksum will ignore all fields that do not enter into the encryption key
computation; thus the server node name and port number, the vendor daemon
and options file paths, and lowercase keyword=value pairs on
FEATURE/INCREMENT lines are not checksummed. In addition, lmcksum
will treat non-case-sensitive fields correctly (in general, lmcksum is not case
sensitive).
For FEATURE lines that contain ck=nnn, lmcksum prints simply OK or BAD.
Usage is:
lmcksum [-k] [-c license_file_path]
where -c license_file_path designates the license file to checksum. By

default, lmcksum uses license.dat in the current directory (unlike other
lmutil commands). Specify -c license_file_path if you want to
checksum another license file.
Example output is:
lmcksum—Copyright (C) 1989, 1997 GLOBEtrotter Software, Inc.
lmcksum: using license file "/a/b/xyzd/licenses/license.dat189:
SERVER speedy 08002b32b161 2837
189: SERVER speedy 08002b32b161 2837

166: DAEMON xyzd C:\flexlm\xyzd.exe
8: FEATURE f1 xyzd 1.000 01-jan-2005 0 3B2BC333A0BF
OK: 231: FEATURE f2 xyzd 1.0 01-jan-0 1 8B1C3001535E \
DUP_GROUP=HD ck=231
109: (overall file checksum)
7.4 lmdiag
lmdiag (FLEXlm v4.0 or later) allows you to diagnose problems when you
cannot check out a license.
Usage is:
lmdiag [-c license_file_list] [-n] [feature[:keyword=value]]

lmdiag
where:
-c license_file_list Diagnose the specified file(s).

-n Run in non-interactive mode; lmdiag
will not prompt for any input in this
mode. In this mode, extended
connection diagnostics are not
available.
feature Diagnose this feature only.
keyword=value If a license file contains multiple lines
for a particular feature, you can select
a particular line for lmdiag to report
on. For example:
lmdiag f1:HOSTID=12345678
will attempt a checkout on the line
with the hostid “12345678.” keyword
can be one of the following:
VERSION, HOSTID, EXPDATE,
KEY, VENDOR_STRING, ISSUER
If no feature is specified, lmdiag will operate on all features in the license

file(s) in your list. lmdiag will first print information about the license, then
attempt to check out each license. If the checkout succeeds, lmdiag will
indicate this. If the checkout fails, lmdiag will give you the reason for the
failure. If the checkout fails because lmdiag cannot connect to the license
server, then you have the option of running “extended connection diagnostics.”
These extended diagnostics attempt to connect to each port on the license
server node, and can detect if the port number in the license file is incorrect.
lmdiag will indicate each port number that is listening, and if it is an lmgrd
process, lmdiag will indicate this as well. If lmdiag finds the vendor daemon
for the feature being tested, then it will indicate the correct port number for the
license file to correct the problem.
See also Section B.2, “FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS.”

lmdown
7.5 lmdown
The lmdown utility allows for the graceful shutdown of all license daemons
(both lmgrd and all vendor daemons) on all nodes.
Usage is:
lmdown [-c license_file_list] [-vendor vendor] [-q] [-all]
where:
-c license_file_list Use the specified license file(s).

-vendor vendor Shut down only this vendor daemon.
lmgrd will always continue running if
this option is specified. Requires v6.0
lmdown and lmgrd (the vendor
daemon can be any version).
-q Don’t prompt or print a header.
Otherwise lmdown asks “Are you
sure? [y/n]: .”
-all If multiple servers are specified,
automatically shuts down all of them.
Otherwise, only one is shutdown. -q is
implied with -all. (v7+)
You may want to protect the execution of lmdown, since shutting down the
servers causes users to lose their licenses. See the -2 -p or the -x options in
Section 7.6, “lmgrd,” for details about securing access to lmdown.
If lmdown encounters more than one server (for example if -c specifies a
directory with many *.lic files), a choice of license servers to shut down is
presented.
Note: Do not use kill -9 to shut down the license servers.
To stop and restart a single vendor daemon, use lmdown -vendor vendor,
then use lmreread -vendor vendor to restart the vendor daemon.
When shutting down redundant servers, there is a one-minute delay before the
servers shut down. lmdown will shut down all three license servers of a set of
redundant license servers. If you need to shut down one of a set of redundant

lmgrd
license servers (not recommended because you are left with two points of
failure), you must kill both the lmgrd and vendor daemon processes on that
license server machine.
See also Section 7.11, “lmreread.”
7.6 lmgrd
lmgrd is the main daemon program for FLEXlm. When you invoke lmgrd, it
looks for a license file which contains information about vendors and features.
On UNIX systems, it is strongly recommended that lmgrd be run as a non-
privileged user (not root).
Usage is:
lmgrd [-c license_file_list] [-l debug_log_path]
[-2 -p] [-nfs_log] [-x lmdown] [-x lmremove] [-z ] [-v]
where:

-l debug_log_path Write debugging information to file
debug_log. This option uses the letter
l, not the numeral 1.
-2 -p Restricts usage of lmdown, lmreread,

and lmremove to a FLEXlm
administrator who is by default root. If
there a UNIX group called “lmadmin,”
then use is restricted to only members
of that group. If root is not a member
of this group, then root does not have
permission to use any of the above
utilities. If -2 -p is used when
starting lmgrd, no user on Windows
can shut down the license server with
lmdown.

lmgrd
-nfs_log We do not recommend writing a debug

log to an NFS-mounted or PC
network-mounted disk. If you choose
to write to a mounted disk and the
speed of the license server is too slow,
you can use this flag to cache debug
info before it is written out (when
approximately 1kb of data is reached).
-x lmdown Disable the lmdown command (no user
can run lmdown). If lmdown is
disabled, you will need to stop lmgrd
via kill pid (UNIX) or stop the
lmgrd and vendor daemon processes
through the Task Manager or NT
Service (Windows). On UNIX, be sure
the kill command does not have a -9
argument. (v4+ lmgrd)
-x lmremove Disable the lmremove command (no
user can run lmremove). (v4+ lmgrd)
-z Run in foreground. The default
behavior is to run in the background.
Windows: pre-v7, lmgrd always runs
in the foreground. In v7+, lmgrd runs
in the background by default. If -l
debug_log_path is present, then no
windows are used, but if no -l
argument specified, separate windows
are used for lmgrd and each vendor
daemon.
-v Prints lmgrd version number and
copyright and exits.
Note: Pre-v6 lmgrd on Windows required -app argument when not run as a service.

lmhostid
7.7 lmhostid
The lmhostid utility reports the hostid of a any machine whose platform is
supported by FLEXlm. The default hostid type is displayed for a platform,
unless an optional hostid type is specified and supported by that platform.
Usage is:
lmhostid [-n] [type]
where type is one of:
[-internet] (optional on all platforms)
[-vsn] [-flexid] [-cpu[32|64|96]] (optional on Windows)
[-ether] (optional on HP)
-n No header is printed, only the hostid is printed.

-internet IP address in ###.###.###.### format.
-vsn Volume Serial Number of the Windows C:\
drive.
-flexid GLOBEtrotter dongle-based hostid. (Windows)
-cpu[32|64|96] Pentium III hostid for Windows. Requires
FLEXlm v7.0d+. The cpuid is turned off by
default, so it must be enabled, which is normally
performed in the BIOS Setup (usually pressing
the DEL key during system boot). The full ID is
96-bit, and this is what must be used for a truly
unique ID, but duplicate 32-bit hostids are
expected to be rare, if they occur at all. Where
available, this the recommended hostid type.
-ether Ethernet address. On HP, the default hostid is
the true system hostid (from uname -i), and is
recommended, but partly for historic reasons,
the ethernet address is also available as a hostid.
The output of this command looks as follows:

lmhostid - Copyright (c) 1989, 1997 Globetrotter Software, Inc.
The FLEXlm hostid of this machine is "69021c89"

lminstall
See also Appendix A, “Hostids for FLEXlm-Supported Machines.”
7.8 lminstall
Introduced in v6.0, lminstall is designed primarily for typing in decimal
format licenses to generate a readable format license file.
Usage is:
lminstall [-i in_lic_file ] [-maxlen n] \
[-o out_lic_file] \
[-overfmt {2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5.1 | 6 | 7 | 7.1}] [-odecimal]
Normally, to convert from decimal to readable format, lminstall is used

with no arguments; you are prompted for the name of the output license file.
The default file name is today’s date in yyyymmdd.lic format. The file should
be moved to the application’s default license file directory, if specified by the
software vendor. Otherwise, use the LM_LICENSE_FILE or
VENDOR_LICENSE_FILE environment variables to specify the directory
where the *.lic files are located.
Decimal format input is verified by a checksum of each line.
To finish entering, type q on a line by itself or enter two blank lines.
When an input file is specified with no output file specified, output goes to
stdout; if neither input nor output file is specified, lminstall assumes that
input will come from stdin and prompts the user for an output file name.
lminstall can also be used to convert licenses from readable to decimal
format, and between different versions of FLEXlm license formats.
To convert from readable to decimal:
lminstall -i in_lic_file -o out_lic_file -odecimal
To convert to FLEXlm v5.1 format:

lminstall -i in_lic_file -o out_lic_file -overfmt 5.1
To enforce a maximum line length of, for example, 50 characters:

lminstall -maxlen 50
Conversion errors are reported as necessary. lminstall has a limit of 1000

lines of input.

lmnewlog
7.9 lmnewlog
The lmnewlog utility switches the report log file by moving the existing report
log information to a new file, then starting a new report log with the original
report log file name. If you rotate report logs with lmnewlog instead of
lmswitchr, you will not have to change the file name in the REPORTLOG
line of the vendor’s options file.
Usage is:
lmnewlog [-c license_file_list] feature renamed_report_log
or:
lmnewlog [-c license_file_list] vendor renamed_report_log
where:

feature Any feature in this license file.
vendor Vendor daemon in this license file.
renamed_report_log New file path where existing report
log information is to be moved.
Note: lmnewlog works only with FLEXlm v7+ vendor daemons. Ask your vendor
for an updated version of their vendor daemon.
7.10 lmremove
The lmremove utility allows you to remove a single user’s license for a
specified feature. This is only needed when a client node crashes, since that’s
the only condition where a license is not automatically freed. If the application
is active, it will re-checkout the license after it is freed by lmremove.
Usage is:
lmremove [-c license_file_list] feature user user_host display
or
lmremove [-c license_file_list] -h feature server_host port handle

lmremove
where:
-c license_file_list Specify license file(s).

feature Name of the feature checked out by the
user.
user Name of the user whose license you are
removing, as reported by lmstat -a.
user_host Name of the host the user is logged into,
as reported by lmstat -a.
display Name of the display where the user is
working, as reported by lmstat -a.
server_host Name of the host on which the license
server is running.
port Port number where the license server is
running, as reported by lmstat -a.
handle License handle, as reported by lmstat
-a.
The user, user_host, display, server_host, port, and handle

information must be obtained from the output of lmstat -a.
lmremove removes all instances of user on user_host and display from
usage of feature. If the optional -c license_file_list is specified, the
indicated file(s) is used as the license file. You should protect the execution of
lmremove, because removing a user’s license can be disruptive. See the -x or
-2 -p options in Section 7.6, “lmgrd,” for details about securing access to
lmremove.
The -h variation uses the server_host, port, and license handle, as
reported by lmstat -a. Consider this example lmstat -a output:
joe nirvana /dev/ttyp5 (v1.000) (cloud9/7654 102), start Fri 10/29 18:40
In this example, the user is “joe,” the user host is “nirvana,” the display is
“/dev/typp5,” the server host is “cloud9,” the port is “7654,” and the license
handle is “102.”

lmreread
To remove this license, issue one of the following commands:

lmremove f1 joe nirvana /dev/ttyp5
or
lmremove -h f1 cloud9 7654 102
When removing by handle, if licenses are grouped as duplicates, all duplicate

licenses will also be removed. If license lingering is set and lmremove is used
to reclaim the license, lmremove will start, but not override, the license’s
linger time.
7.11 lmreread
The lmreread utility causes the license daemon to reread the license file and
start any new vendor daemons that have been added. In addition, all running
daemons will be signaled to reread the license file for changes in feature
licensing information. If the optional vendor daemon name is specified, only
the named daemon will reread the license file (in this case, lmgrd will not
reread the license file).
Usage is:
lmreread [-c license_file_list] [-vendor vendor] [-all]
where:

-vendor vendor Only this one vendor daemon should
reread the license file. lmgrd will
restart the vendor daemon if necessary.
Requires v6+ lmreread and lmgrd
(the vendor daemon can be any
version).
-all If more than one lmgrd is specified,
instructs all lmgrds to reread. (v7+)
You may want to protect the execution of lmreread. See the -2 -p and -x
options in Section 7.6, “lmgrd,” for details about securing access to
lmreread.

lmstat
To stop and restart a single vendor daemon, use lmdown -vendor vendor,
then use lmreread -vendor vendor, which restarts the vendor daemon.
Note: If you use the -c license_file_list option, the license file(s) specified
will be read by lmreread, not by lmgrd; lmgrd rereads the file it read
originally. Also, lmreread cannot be used to change server node names or
port numbers.
Note: Vendor daemons will not reread their option files as a result of lmreread.
7.12 lmstat
The lmstat utility helps you monitor the status of all network licensing
activities, including:
• Daemons that are running
• Users of individual features
• Users of features served by a specific vendor daemon
lmstat prints information that it receives from the license server, therefore it
will not return any information about users of node-locked uncounted or
DEMO licenses, unless the server’s license file includes the node-locked
licenses and the client is not reading the license file (via @host, port@host
or USE_SERVER). Queued users and licenses shared due to duplicate
grouping are also not returned by lmstat.
Usage is:
lmstat [-a] [-A] [-c license_file_list] [-f [feature]]
[-S [vendor]]
where:
-a Display all information about.

-A List all active licenses.
-f [feature] List users of feature.
-S [vendor] List all users of vendor ’s features.

lmstat
lmremove requires the output of lmstat -a. The output of lmstat -a

looks similar to:
License server status: 27000@myhost1
License file(s) on myhost: /flexlm/v7.2/sun4_u5/license.dat:
myhost: license server UP (MASTER) v7.2
Vendor daemon status (on myhost1):
demo: UP v7.2
Feature usage info:
Users of f1: (Total of 4 licenses available)
"f1" v1.0, vendor: demo
floating license
daniel myhost2 19.16.18.26 (v1.0) (myhost1/27000 102), start Fri
5/3 7:29
where:
daniel user User name.

myhost2 user_host Host where user is running.
19.16.18.26 display Display where user is running.
v1.0 version Version of feature.
myhost1 server_host Host where license server is
running.
27000 port Port on server_host where
license server is running.
102 handle License handle.
start Fri 5/3 checkout_time Time that this license was checked
7:29 out.
Note: lmstat -a is a potentially expensive command. With many active users, this
can generate a lot of network activity, and therefore should not be used too
often.

lmswitchr
7.13 lmswitchr
The lmswitchr utility switches the report log file by closing the existing
report log and starting a new report log with a new file name. It will also start
a new report log file if one does not already exist.
Usage is:
lmswitchr [-c license_file_list] feature new_report_log
or with v5+ vendor daemon:

lmswitchr [-c license_file_list] vendor new_report_log
where:

feature Any feature in this license file.
vendor Vendor daemon in this license file.
new_report_log Path to new report log file.
Note: lmswitchr does not work with FLEXlm v3.0 vendor daemons. Ask your
vendor for a later version of their vendor daemon.
7.14 lmver
The lmver utility reports the FLEXlm version of a library or binary file.
Usage is:
lmver filename
where filename is the name of an executable file built with FLEXlm.

For example if you have an application called “spell,” type:
lmver spell
Alternatively, on UNIX systems, you can use the following commands to get
the FLEXlm version of a binary:
strings filename | grep Copy

License Administration Tools—LMTOOLS for Windows
7.15 License Administration Tools—LMTOOLS for Windows

For the 32-bit Windows platforms, an LMTOOLS program is provided.
With LMTOOLS, you can start, stop and configure FLEXlm license servers,
get system information, including hostids, get server status, and more.
LMTOOLS v7+ has two modes in which to configure a license server:
• Configuration using a license file
• Configuration using services
7.15.1 Configuration Using License File
Operations are performed on a particular license file. In this mode, you cannot
start the lmgrd process, but you can do everything else. In the first tab, you
need to select a license file.
7.15.2 Configuration Using Services
Operations are performed on a Windows Service, which allows starting lmgrd
processes. On NT, you configure a real NT Service. On Windows 95/98, it
behaves similarly to an NT service. In the first tab, you need to select a service.
Use the Configure Services tab to define a license service. When configuring
a service, a license file is selected (similar to Configuration using License
File), but in addition, locations for lmgrd and the debug log file are specified,
the service is given a unique name, and you can also indicate that the service
should be started with system boot.

Appendix A
Hostids for FLEXlm-Supported

Machines
FLEXlm uses different machine identifications for different machine

architectures. For example, all Sun Microsystems machines have a unique
hostid, whereas all DEC machines do not. For this reason, the ethernet address
is used on some machine architectures as the hostid. An ethernet address is a
6-byte quantity, with each byte specified as two hexadecimal digits. Specify all
twelve hex digits when using an ethernet address as a hostid. For example, if
the ethernet address is “8:0:20:0:5:ac,” you would specify “0800200005ac” as
the hostid.
A.1 Hostid Formats
Numeric, 32-bit hostids are normally used in hexadecimal format. On some
systems, including HP and SGI, the system command returns the number in
decimal format. Since v3.0 of FLEXlm, a “#” before the hostid indicates to
FLEXlm that this is a decimal number. For example, if the HP uname -i
command returns “2005771344,” FLEXlm will accept “#2005771344.” Or it
can be converted to hexadecimal. On UNIX systems, you can convert to hex
with the following script:
echo 2005771344 16o p | dc
778DA450

Expected FLEXlm Hostids
A.2 Expected FLEXlm Hostids

The program lmhostid will print the exact hostid that FLEXlm expects to use
on any given machine. The following table lists alternate methods to obtain the
required hostid for each machine architecture. FLEXlm also supports a group
of special hostids and vendor-defined hostids.
Hardware Hostid Type this command on Example

Platform the license server:
AIX 32-bit uname -m (returns 02765131
(RS/6000, hostid 000276513100), then
PPC) remove last two digits,
and use remaining last
eight digits
DEC Alpha ethernet netstat -i 080020005532
address
HP 32-bit uname -i and convert 778DA450 or
hostid to hex, or prepend with #2005771344
#
ethernet lanscan (station 0000F0050185
address address without leading
“0x”)
Linux ethernet /sbin/ifconfig 00400516E525
address eth0 and remove
colons from HWaddr
00:40:05:16:E5:25
SCO Hostid uname -x (Serial is ID_STRING=SCO00354
String SCO00354), then prefix
with “ID_STRING=”
SGI 32-bit /etc/sysinfo -s, 69064C3C or
hostid convert to hex, or prefix #1762020412
#
SUN 32-bit hostid 170a3472
hostid
79 Hostids for FLEXlm-Supported Machines

Special FLEXlm Hostids
Hardware Hostid Type this command on Example

Platform the license server:
Windows ethernet lmutil lmhostid 00B0A9DF9A32
address
Disk serial DIR C: (look for DISK_SERIAL_NUM=
number “Volume Serial Number 3e2e17fd
is”, and remove “-”)
Dongle— lmhostid -flexid FLEXID=7-b28520b9
parallel port
hardware
key
Pentium lmhostid -cpu 9077-5D77-0002-57C8-
III+ CPU, lmhostid -cpu96 95D2-1D3D (96-bit)
V7.0d+ (The 32-bit version is
only. Use the last nine characters
BIOS Setup from the full id.) 95D2-1D3D (32-bit)
to enable.
A.3 Special FLEXlm Hostids

FLEXlm contains a number of “special” hostid types which apply to all
platforms. These hostid types can be used on either a SERVER line or a
FEATURE line, wherever a hostid is required. These are:
ANY Locks the software to any node (i.e.,

does not lock anything).
DEMO Similar to ANY, but only for use with
uncounted FEATURE lines.
DISK_SERIAL_NUM=SN Locks the software to a PC with C drive
serial number SN. (Windows only).
DISPLAY=display Locks the software to display display.
FLEXID=SN Locks the software to a PC with a
hardware key (dongle) of serial number
SN. (Windows only).

Special FLEXlm Hostids
HOSTNAME=host Locks the software to computer host

name host.
ID=n Functionally equivalent to the “ANY”
hostid—it will run on any node. The
difference is that the license is unique
and can be used to identify the customer.
This hostid can be used to lock the
license server (on the SERVER line) or
the client (on the
FEATURE/INCREMENT line). The
number can have dashes included for
readability—the dashes are ignored.
Examples:
ID=12345678 is the same as
ID=1234-5678 is the same as
ID=1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
ID_STRING=string Used on SCO systems for hostid.
INTERNET= Locks the software to an Internet IP
###.###.###.### address, or group of IP addresses.
Wildcards are allowed. For example,
198.156.*.* means any host with a
matching internet IP address. The main
use is to limit usage access by subnet,
implying geographic area. For this
purpose, it would be used on the
FEATURE/INCREMENT line, as a
hostid lock.
USER=user Locks the software to user name user.
EXAMPLES
FEATURE f1 demo 1.0 1-jan-2005 uncounted HOSTID=HOSTNAME=globes \
SIGN=AB28E0011DA1
or
FEATURE f1 demo 1.0 1-jan-2005 uncounted HOSTID=USER=joe \
SIGN=EB78201163B0
81 Hostids for FLEXlm-Supported Machines

Appendix B
Troubleshooting Guide
This appendix documents areas of FLEXlm that have given customers

difficulty in the past. We hope it helps you debug any problems you might
experience at your site.
B.1 General Debugging Hints
The following are tips for debugging:
• When you start the license server (lmgrd) be sure that you direct the
output into a log file where you can examine it. The log file often contains
useful information. You should examine it when you have a problem, and
be prepared to answer questions about it when you talk to a support person.
• If the license server appears to have started correctly (which you should be
able to determine from the log file), try running lmstat -a and lmdiag
to see if that program has the same problem as your application.
• If your application is FLEXlm v4.1 or later (v5 or later on Windows), you
can use the FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS environment variable. Set
FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS to 1, 2, or 3. A setting of 3 gives more
information than 2, 2 gives more information than 1 (in particular, the
feature name that was denied).
• When you talk to a support person, you should be prepared to answer the
following questions:
• What kind of machine is your license server running on? What version of
the operating system? What machine and operating system is the
application running on?
• What version of FLEXlm does the program use? Use the lmver script, or,
on UNIX, execute the following command on your lmgrd, vendor
daemon, and application:
strings binary_name | grep Copy
Alternatively, lmgrd -v gives the lmgrd version, and this works with the
vendor daemon also.

FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS
• What error or warning messages appear in the log file? Did the server start
correctly? Look for a message such as:
server xyz started for: feature1 feature2.
• What is the output from running lmstat -a?
• Are you running other products which are also licensed by FLEXlm? Are
you using a combined license file or separate license files?
• Are you using redundant servers (multiple SERVER lines in your license
file)?
B.2 FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS
Note: Available only with applications using FLEXlm v4.1 or higher for UNIX, and
v5.0 or higher with Windows. Also, applications may choose not to provide
this functionality.
FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS is an environment variable that will cause the

application to produce diagnostic information when a checkout is denied. The
format of the diagnostic information may change over time.
To set FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS, on UNIX:
(csh): setenv FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS 1
(sh): FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS=1; export FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS
On Windows 3.1 and 95, add the following line to C:\autoexec.bat:

SET FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS=1
On NT, use the System Control Panel applet to change the global environment,
adding FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS to 1.
On UNIX, the diagnostic output goes to stderr.
On Windows, if the application is v5.11 or higher, the output is a file in the
current directory called flexpid.log, where pid is the application’s process
ID. If the application is v5.0, the output file is called flex_err.log.
B.2.1 Level 1 Content
If FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS is set to 1, then the standard FLEXlm error message
will be presented, plus a complete list of license files that the application tried
to use. For example:
setenv FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS 1
FLEXlm checkout error: Cannot find license file (-1,73:2) No such file
or directory
license file(s): /usr/myproduct/licenses/testing.dat license.dat
83 Troubleshooting Guide
FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS
B.2.2 Level 2 Content

If FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS is set to 2, then, in addition to level 1 output, the
checkout arguments are presented. For example:
FLEXlm checkout error: No such feature exists (-5,116:2) No such file or
directory
license file(s): /usr/myproduct/licenses/testing.dat license.dat
lm_checkout("f1", 1.0, 1, 0x0, ..., 0x4000)
Note that the error message actually contains two separate problems, which
both occurred during the checkout:
• There’s no such feature in the license it did find
• It was unable to find the other license file, which is what produces the
message “No such file or directory”
Following is a description of the arguments to lm_checkout()
lm_checkout(feature, version, num_lic, queue_flag, ...,
dupgroup_mask)
where:
feature The requested feature.

version The requested version. The license file must
contain a version >= the requested version.
num_lic Number of licenses requested. Usually 1.
queue_flag If 0, no queueing
If 1, queue for license (“blocking” queue)
If 2, queue for licenses, but return to application
(“non-blocking” queue)
dupgroup_mask Indicates duplicate grouping, also called license
sharing. User, host, and display are as shown by
lmstat -a.

FLEXlm Troubleshooting List
B.2.3 Level 3 Content (FLEXlm v6+ only)

If FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS is set to 3, then, in addition to level 1 and 2 output,
if a checkout is successful, information is printed explaining how the license
was granted:
app
Checkout succeeded: f0/14263EAEA8E0
License file: ./servtest.lic
No server used
app2
Checkout succeeded: f1/BC64A7B120AE
License file: @localhost
License Server: @localhost
app3
Checkout succeeded: f1/BC64A7B120AE
License file: servtest.lic
License Server: @speedy
Note that the feature name and license key are printed, along with the license
file location (or host name if @host were used) and host name of the server,
where applicable.
B.3 FLEXlm Troubleshooting List
B.3.1 Problem Description Format
Each problem is presented in three parts:
Symptom: A description of the problem.

Cause: A discussion of what causes the problem described in
the “Symptom” section.
Solution: Instructions on how to solve the problem.
You can scan through the list of problems to find any which appear to relate to
your concerns. In order to solve your problem, you may have to use all or some
of the solutions listed here.
B.3.2 Hostid Problems
Symptom: When I run the license manager on my machine, it tells

me it is the wrong hostid.
Cause: The vendor daemon checks the hostid listed on the
SERVER line in the license file; if it does not match the
hostid of the machine it is running on, this message will
be printed. Possible causes include: 1) you are trying to
run the license server on a different machine from the
machine the file was made for; 2) the hostid of the
machine you are running on changed (for example, the
dongle hostid was moved (Windows) or the CPU board
was replaced); 3) the hostid in the license file was
modified.
Solution: Verify that the hostid of the machine on which the
vendor daemon (or node locked client program) is being
run matches the hostid specified in the license file (on
the SERVER line for the vendor or on the FEATURE
line for a node-locked client). You can run the
lmhostid program to see what FLEXlm thinks the
hostid is. You may not modify the hostid in the license
file. If the hostid of your server machine changes, you
will have to get a new license file from your software
vendor.

B.3.3 Connection Problems
Symptom: The application program (or lmstat) can’t connect to

the server to check out a license.
Cause: The FLEXlm routines in the application are unable to
make a TCP connection to the server and port specified
in the license file. Possible reasons for this are: 1) the
wrong license file is being referenced by the application
program; 2) the server machine specified in the license
file is down; 3) the vendor daemon specified in the
license file is not running; 4) the host name in the
license file is not recognized by the system; 5) the
network between the client machine and the server
machine is down; 6) You are mixing FLEXlm v1.5 (or
earlier) and v2.1 (or later) vendor daemons in one
license file and have run lmgrd without the -b
command line option; 7) TCP is not running on your
machine.
Solution: The lmdiag utility is designed primarily to debug this
problem, so first, try lmdiag. Verify that the application
is using the proper license file. Verify that specified
server machine is up and reachable by executing another
command that uses TCP, such as telnet, from the
client to the server. Verify that the vendor daemon is
running (you can use ps on the server to look for it).
Examine the license log file to see if any problems are
reported, particularly messages indicating that the
vendor daemon has quit. Run lmstat -a from the
server machine to verify that the vendor daemon is alive.
Run lmstat -a from the client machine to verify the
connection from client to vendor daemon across the
network. Try using telnet host port where host
and port are the same as on the SERVER line in your
license file.
B.3.4 Other Client Problems
Symptom: When I run my application program (or vendor

daemon), I get the error bad code or inconsistent
encryption code.
Cause: Possible causes for this are: 1) the license file was
modified (either the hostid on a SERVER line or
anything on the FEATURE line was changed); 2) the
vendor used the wrong version of his license creation
program to generate your license file (or there is a bug
in that process).
Solution: You may not modify the license file (except for specific
fields, see Chapter 3, “The License File”). If you need to
change something in your license file, you must get a
new license file from your software vendor.
Symptom: When the second user tries to check out a license, the
vendor daemon prints an error concerning Parameter
mismatch in the debug log file and refuses the license.
The application may give the error: Duplicate
selection mismatch for this feature.
Cause: The most likely cause of this problem is that you are
simultaneously trying to run two different versions of
the application program, and the software vendor has not
specifically set up the new version for this kind of
compatibility. Check the debug log file for a comm
version mismatch warning message; this indicates that
someone is running an older client than the license
server daemon, lmgrd.
Solution: Run only the new version of the application (or only the
old version).

B.3.5 Other Server Problems
Symptom: When I run the vendor daemon on my VMS system, I get

the error message socket bind: permission
denied (13).
Cause: The daemon needs to bind the socket address in order to

be able to listen for connections from clients. This is
done in the system name table, so it requires the
SYSNAM privilege.
Solution: Run the daemon in a process with the SYSNAM
privilege set.
Symptom: When I start up lmgrd, it says execl failed on my

vendor daemon.
Cause: lmgrd uses execl to start each vendor daemon running.
If there is a problem starting the vendor daemon, this
message is output to the log file. This error is typically
caused by one of the following: 1) there is no executable
at the location referred to by the license file (and printed
out in the log file); 2) the executable does not have the
proper permissions to be run (the file does not have the
“x” bit set or one of the directories in the path is not
readable); 3) there was an error building the executable,
and it can not be run; 4) the executable is for a different
machine architecture.
Solution: Verify that the path to the vendor daemon is absolute
(i.e., starts with a slash character and that it points to the
executable program itself, not the containing directory
(for FLEXlm v1.5). Ensure that the file exists by doing
an ls -l of the vendor daemon file name(s) specified
in the log file. Make sure you do this as the same user
that started lmgrd. Verify that the file is executable.
Note that if you are running as root and using an NFS-
mounted file system, the relevant protection bits are the
“other” bits (not the “user” bits), even if the file is
owned by root. Do a whatis on the file (if your system
has that program). whatis should tell you the file is an
executable for the machine you are trying to run it on.
Run the vendor daemon directly from the command line.
If the vendor daemon is properly linked, it will tell you
that it must be run from lmgrd; if it crashes or fails to
execute, then it is not properly linked.

Symptom: The license server keeps reporting “lost lock” errors in

the log file and exiting.
Cause: The lock file (normally placed in /usr/tmp on UNIX,
C:\flexlm on Windows NT, SYS:\SYSTEM\FLEXLM
on Netware) is being removed by someone else. There
could be another daemon running, or the license
administrator (or a script he set up) could have deleted
the file.
Solution: Check to see if there is more than one copy of the
daemon running. On UNIX use a command like
ps -aux | grep vendor to search for it. Check for
more than one lmgrd running as well, since it will
restart your vendor daemon when it is killed. If more
than one lmgrd is running, kill them all (using the kill
command, not kill -9, on UNIX or LMTOOLS on
Windows NT), then kill any remaining vendor daemons
(on UNIX, try a simple kill, if that fails then try kill
-9 the lmgrd and all vendor daemons) and start one
fresh copy of lmgrd. On UNIX, check to see if there is
a shell script running that cleans out /tmp (or
/usr/tmp). If so, try modifying it so that it does not
delete zero-length files.
Appendix C
FLEXlm Environment Variables
Environment variables should never be required to use FLEXlm-licensed

applications. Environment variables are normally used for debugging or for
changing license default location.
C.1 How to Set Environment Variables
FLEXlm environment variables are set in two different ways:
• The normal set or setenv commands (or the System Control Panel on
Windows NT)
• The registry (Windows v6+) or in $HOME/.flexlmrc (UNIX v7+),
which functions like the registry for FLEXlm on UNIX.
C.1.1 Registry
On Windows, the FLEXlm registry location is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE→SOFTWARE→FLEXlm License Manager
On UNIX, the equivalent information is stored in $HOME/.flexlmrc. In this

file, the syntax is variable=value.
C.1.2 Precedence
If the variable is LM_LICENSE_FILE or VENDOR_LICENSE_FILE, then both
the environment and the registry are used, with the environment used first, and
the registry appended to the path.
If it’s a different variable, then if the environment set, only that is used,
otherwise the registry is used. That is, the registry is only used if the
environment is not set.

Environment Variables
C.2 Environment Variables
Variable Use (FLEXlm version introduced)

FLEXLM_BATCH Windows only: prevents interactive pop-
ups from appearing. Set to 1 if a batch
application. (Version 7+ clients)
FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS Used for debugging where applications
don’t print FLEXlm error message text.
Set to 1, 2, or 3, depending on the
amount of diagnostic information
desired. See Section B.2,
“FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS.” (Version
5+ clients)
LM_LICENSE_FILE or Reset path to license file. Can be a
VENDOR_LICENSE_FILE license file list, separated by “: ” on
UNIX and “ ; ” on Windows. If
VENDOR_LICENSE_FILE used, VENDOR
is the vendor daemon name used by this
application. For example, GLOBEtrotter
Software products use
GSI_LICENSE_FILE. Can be a file
name, or port@host. See also Section
3.1.2, “Setting the Path with an
Environment Variable.”
(VENDOR_LICENSE_FILE requires v6+
clients.)
LM_PROJECT LM_PROJECT’s value is logged in the
report log file and later reported on by
SAMreport. Limited to 30 characters.
(Version 5+ client required.)
This can also be used to RESERVE,
INCLUDE, etc. licenses with PROJECT.
For example:
RESERVE 1 f1 PROJECT airplane
v5+ clients and v7+ vendor daemon are
required for this feature.
93 FLEXlm Environment Variables

Appendix D
Frequently Asked Questions
D.1 License File Questions

D.1.1 I’ve received FLEXlm license files from two different companies.
Do I have to combine them?
You don’t have to combine license files. Each license file that has any counted
lines (the license count field is > 0) requires a server. It’s perfectly OK to have
any number of separate license files, with different lmgrd server processes
supporting each file. Moreover, since lmgrd is a lightweight process, for sites
without system administrators, this is often the simplest (and therefore
recommended) way to proceed. With v6+ lmgrd/lmdown/lmreread, you can
restart/stop/reread a single vendor daemon (of any FLEXlm version). This
makes combining licenses more attractive than previously. Also, if the
application is v6+, using dir/*.lic for license file management behaves like
combining licenses without physically combining them.
D.1.2 When is it recommended to combine license files?
Many system administrators, especially for larger sites, prefer to combine
license files to ease administration of FLEXlm licenses. It’s purely a matter of
preference.
D.1.3 Does FLEXlm handle dates in the year 2000 and beyond?
Yes. The FLEXlm date format uses a four-digit year. Dates in the 20th century
(19xx) can be abbreviated to the last two digits of the year (xx), and use of this
feature is quite widespread. Dates in the year 2000 and beyond must specify all
four year digits.

FLEXlm Versions
D.2 FLEXlm Versions

D.2.1 I have products from several companies at various FLEXlm ver-
sion levels. Do I have to worry about how these versions work to-
gether?
If you’re not combining license files from different vendors, the simplest thing
to do is make sure you use the tools that are shipped by each vendor.
lmgrd will always correctly support older versions of vendor daemons and
applications, so it’s always safe to use the latest version of lmgrd and the
lmutil/LMTOOLS utilities. If you’ve combined license files from two
vendors, you must use the latest version of lmgrd.
If you’ve received two versions of a product from the same vendor, you must
use the latest vendor daemon they send you. An older vendor daemon with a
newer client will cause communication errors.
Please ignore letters appended to FLEXlm versions, for example, the “d” in
v2.4d. The appended letter indicates a patch, and does NOT indicate any
compatibility differences. In particular, some elements of FLEXlm didn’t
require certain patches, so a v2.4 lmgrd will work successfully with a v2.4b
vendor daemon. See also Section G.1, “Version Compatibility and
Components.”
D.2.2 I’ve received a new copy of a product from a vendor, and it uses
a new version of FLEXlm. Is my old license file still valid?
Yes. Older FLEXlm license files are always valid with newer versions of
FLEXlm.
D.2.3 I’ve received a new license file, and the format is different from
the old one I had from the same vendor? Why? Are they compat-
ible?
As of v3.0, FLEXlm has an optional new format for license files. FLEXlm
products always understand older versions; therefore, the pre-v3.0 files are
understood by every FLEXlm version. However, your old applications (pre-
FLEXlm v3.0) will not be able to use the new license file. See also Section 3.2,
“License File Format.”
95 Frequently Asked Questions

Using FLEXlm
D.3 Using FLEXlm

D.3.1 Does FLEXlm work across the Internet?
Yes. A server on the Internet will serve licenses to anyone else on the Internet.
This can be limited with the INTERNET= attribute on the FEATURE line,
which limits access to a range of Internet addresses. You can also use the
INCLUDE and EXCLUDE options in the daemon option file to allow (or
deny) access to clients running on a range of Internet addresses.
D.3.2 Does FLEXlm work with Internet firewalls?
Many firewalls require that port numbers be specified to the firewall. FLEXlm
v5 lmgrd supports this.
D.3.3 If my client dies, does the server free the license?
Yes, unless the client’s whole system crashes, or becomes disconnected from
the network. Assuming communications is TCP, the license is automatically
freed immediately. If communications are UDP, then the license is freed after
the UDP timeout, which is set by each vendor, but defaults to 45 minutes. UDP
communications is normally only set by the end user, so TCP should be
assumed. If the whole system crashes, then the license is not freed, and you
should use lmremove to free the license.
D.3.4 What happens when the license server dies?
FLEXlm applications send periodic heartbeats to the server to discover if it has
died. What happens when the server dies is then up to the application. Some
will simply continue periodically attempting to re-checkout the license when
the server comes back up. Some will attempt to re-checkout a license a few
times, and then, presumably with some warning, exit. Some GUI applications
will present pop-ups to the user periodically letting them know the server is
down and needs to be restarted.
D.3.5 How do you tell if a port is already in use?
99.44% of the time, if it’s in use, it’s because lmgrd is already running on the
port—or was recently killed, and the port isn’t freed yet. Assuming this is not
the case, then use telnet host port— if it says “Can’t connect,” it’s a free
port.
D.3.6 Does FLEXlm require root permissions?
No. There is no part of FLEXlm, lmgrd, vendor daemon, or application, that
requires root permissions. In fact, it is strongly recommended that you do not
run the license server (lmgrd) as “root,” since root processes can introduce

Using FLEXlm
security risks. If lmgrd must be started from the root user (for example, in a
system boot script), we recommend that you use the su command to run lmgrd
as a non-privileged user:
su username -c "lmgrd_path -c license_file_path -l debug_log_path"
where username is a non-privileged user, and the paths are the correct paths
to lmgrd, the license file, and the debug log file. You will have to ensure that
the vendor daemons listed in the license file have execute permissions for
username. The paths to all the vendor daemons in the license file are listed on
each DAEMON line.
D.3.7 Is it OK to run lmgrd as “root” (UNIX only)?
It is not prudent to run any command, particularly a daemon, as root on UNIX,
as it may pose a security risk to the operating system. Therefore, we
recommend that lmgrd be run as a non-privileged user (not “root”). If you are
starting lmgrd from a boot script, we recommend that you use:
su username -c "umask 022; lmgrd..."
to run lmgrd as a non-privileged user.

D.3.8 Does FLEXlm licensing impose a heavy load on the network?
No, but partly this depends on the application, and end user’s use. A typical
checkout request requires five messages and responses between client and
server, and each message is <150 bytes.
When a server is not receiving requests, it requires virtually no CPU time.
When an application, or lmstat, requests the list of current users, this can
significantly increase the amount of networking FLEXlm uses, depending on
the number of current users.
Also, prior to FLEXlm v5, use of port@host can increase network load, since
the license file is downloaded from the server to the client. port@host should
be, if possible, limited to small license files (say, <50 features). In v5,
port@host actually improves performance.
D.3.9 Does FLEXlm work with NFS?
Yes. FLEXlm has no direct interaction with NFS. FLEXlm uses an NFS-
mounted file like any other application.
D.3.10 Does FLEXlm work with ATM, ISDN, Token-Ring, etc.
In general, these have no impact on FLEXlm. FLEXlm requires TCP/IP. So
long as TCP/IP works, FLEXlm will work.

Using FLEXlm
D.3.11 Does FLEXlm work with subnets, fully qualified names, multiple
domains, etc.?
Yes, although this behavior was improved in v3.0, and v6.0.
When a license server and a client are located in different domains, fully
qualified host names have to be used. A “fully qualified host name” is of the
form node.domain, where node is the local host name (usually returned by
the hostname command or uname -n) and domain is the Internet domain
name, e.g., “globes.com.”
To ensure success with FLEXlm across domains, do the following:
1. Make the sure the fully qualified host name is the name on the SERVER
line of the license file.
2. Make sure ALL client nodes, as well as the server node, are able to
telnet to that fully qualified host name. For example, if the host is locally
called “speedy,” and the domain name is “corp.com,” local systems will be
able to logon to “speedy” via telnet speedy. But very often, telnet
speedy.corp.com will fail locally. Note that this telnet command will
always succeed on hosts in other domains (assuming everything is
configured correctly), since the network will resolve “speedy.corp.com”
automatically.
3. Finally, there must be an alias for “speedy” so it’s also known locally as
“speedy.corp.com.” This alias is added to the /etc/hosts file, or if
NIS/Yellow Pages are being used, then it will have to be added to the NIS
database. This requirement goes away in version 3.0 of FLEXlm.
If all components (application, lmgrd and vendor daemon) are v6.0 or higher,
no aliases are required; the only requirement is that the fully qualified domain
name, or IP address, is used as a host name on the SERVER, or as a host name
in the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable (port@host or @host).
D.3.12 Does FLEXlm work with NIS and DNS?
Yes. However, some sites have broken NIS or DNS, which will cause FLEXlm
to fail. In v5 of FLEXlm, NIS and DNS can be avoided to solve this problem.
In particular, sometimes DNS is configured for a server that’s not current
available (e.g., a dial-up connection from a PC). Again, if DNS is configured,
but the server is not available, FLEXlm will fail.
On PCs, if a checkout seems to take three minutes and then fails, this is usually
because the system is configured for a dial-up DNS server which is not
currently available. The solution here is to turn off DNS.

Windows Questions
Finally, host names must NOT have periods in the name. These are not legal
host names, although PCs will allow you to enter them, and they will not work
with DNS.
D.3.13 We’re using FLEXlm over a wide-area network. What can we do
to improve performance?
FLEXlm network traffic should be minimized. With the most common uses of
FLEXlm, traffic is negligible. In particular, checkout, checkin, and heartbeats
use very little networking traffic. There are two items, however, which can
send considerably more data and should be avoided or used sparingly:
• lmstat -a should be used sparingly. lmstat -a should not be used
more than, say, once every 15 minutes, and should be particularly avoided
when there’s a lot of features, or concurrent users, and therefore a lot of
data to transmit; say, more than 20 concurrent users or features.
• Prior to FLEXlm v5, the port@host mode of the LM_LICENSE_FILE
environment variable should be avoided, especially when the license file
has many features, or there are a lot of license files included in
LM_LICENSE_FILE. The license file information is sent via the network,
and can place a heavy load. Failures due to port@host will generate the
error LM_SERVNOREADLIC (-61).
D.4 Windows Questions
D.4.1 What PC Platforms are supported?
FLEXlm v7.2 supports Windows 95/98, 2000, and NT.
Note: Networking is required on all 32-bit versions.
D.4.2 Will the Server run on Windows 95?

Yes.

Appendix E
FLEXlm Error Codes
E.1 Error Message Format

FLEXlm error messages presented by applications have the following
components:
• FLEXlm Error Number—a negative number starting at -1.
• FLEXlm Error Text—short sentence (< 80 characters) summarizing
problem.
• FLEXlm Error Explanation (optional)—short paragraph (3-5 lines)
explaining problem and possible solutions or workarounds.
• FLEXlm Minor Error Number—a positive number starting at 1. These
numbers are unique error identifiers and are used by FLEXlm ISVs for
more advanced support assistance. Their meaning is not documented.
• System Error Number (optional)—a UNIX or Windows OS error code last
set by the operating system.
• System Error Explanation (optional)—a short sentence (< 80 characters)
explaining the system error.
• Other supporting information (optional)
Error messages were improved in v6. FLEXlm Error Explanation, and
supporting information are only available in applications using v6.0+.
These error messages may occur in two formats available with FLEXlm or may
appear in a format customized by the application.
E.1.1 Format 1 (short):
FLEXlm error text (-lm_errno, minor_num[:sys_errno]) [sys_error_text]
The system error information may be missing.

Example:
Can’t connect to license server (-15,12:61) Connection refused

Error Code Descriptions
E.1.2 Format 2 (long—version 6+):

FLEXlm error text
FLEXlm error explanation
[Optional Supporting information]
FLEXlm error: -lm_errno, minor_num. [System Error: sys_errno]
[“system_error_text”]
Example:
Cannot connect to license server
The server (lmgrd) has not been started yet, or
the wrong port@host or license file is being used, or the
port or hostname in the license file has been changed.
Feature: f1
Server name: localhost
License path: @localhost:license.dat:./*.lic
FLEXlm error: -15,12. System Error: 61 “Connection refused”
E.2 Error Code Descriptions

Errors marked with an “ * ” indicates errors which should not appear in
shipping software. These are errors intended to help the programmer
incorporate FLEXlm in their product, and should be fixed before shipping.
Errors marked with “ + ” indicate errors due to an operating system failure.
Error Description
-1 Cannot find license file.
-2 Invalid license file syntax.
-3 No server for this feature.
-4 Licensed number of users already reached.
-5 No such feature exists.
-6 No port number in license file and FLEXlm service does
not exist. (pre-v6 only)
-7 No socket connection to license manager service.
-8 Invalid (inconsistent) license key or signature.
The license key/signature and data for the feature do not
match. This usually happens when a license file has
been altered.
101 FLEXlm Error Codes

-9 Invalid host.
The hostid of this system does not match the hostid
specified in the license file.
-10 Feature has expired.
-11 Invalid date format in license file.
-12 Invalid returned data from license server.
-13 No SERVER lines in license file.
-14 Cannot find SERVER host name in network database.
The lookup for the host name on the SERVER line in the
license file failed. This often happens when NIS or DNS
or the hosts file is incorrect. Workaround: Use IP
address (e.g., 123.456.789.123) instead of host name.
-15 Cannot connect to license server.
The server (lmgrd) has not been started yet, or the
wrong port@host or license file is being used, or the
port or host name in the license file has been changed.
-16 Cannot read data from license server.
-17 Cannot write data to license server.
-18 License server does not support this feature.
-19 Error in select system call.
-20 [Obsolete]
-21 License file does not support this version.
-22 Feature checkin failure detected at license server.
-23 License server temporarily busy (new server
connecting).
-24 Users are queued for this feature.
-25 License server does not support this version of this
feature.
-26 Request for more licenses than this feature supports.

-27 [Obsolete]
-28 [Obsolete]
-29 Cannot find ethernet device.
-30 Cannot read license file.
-31 Feature start date is in the future.
-32 No such attribute.
-33 Bad encryption handshake with daemon.
-34 Clock difference too large between client and server.
-35 In the queue for this feature.
-36 Feature database corrupted in daemon.
-37 Duplicate selection mismatch for this feature.
-38 User/host on EXCLUDE list for feature.
-39 User/host not on INCLUDE list for feature.
-40 Cannot locate dynamic memory.
-41 Feature was never checked out.
-42 Invalid parameter.
-43 * No FLEXlm key data supplied in initializing call.
-44 * Invalid FLEXlm key data supplied.
-45 * FLEXlm function not available in this version.
-46 [Obsolete]
-47 Clock setting check not available in daemon.
-48 * FLEXlm platform not enabled.
-49 * Date invalid for binary format.
-50 * FLEXlm key data has expired.
-51 * FLEXlm not initialized.

-52 FLEXlm vendor daemon did not respond within timeout

interval.
-53 Checkout request rejected by vendor-defined checkout
filter.
-54 No FEATURESET line in license file.
-55 Incorrect FEATURESET line in license file.
-56 Cannot compute FEATURESET data from license file.
-57 + socket() call failed.
-58 [Obsolete]
-59 Message checksum failure.
-60 Server message checksum failure.
-61 Cannot read license file data from server.
-62 Network software (TCP/IP) not available.
-63 You are not a license administrator.
-64 lmremove request before the minimum lmremove
interval.
-65 * Unknown VENDORCODE struct type passed to
lm_init().
-66 * FLEXlm include file/library version mismatch.
-67 [Obsolete]
-68 [Obsolete]
-69 [Obsolete]
-70 [Obsolete]
-71 Invalid TZ environment variable.
-72 * Old VENDORCODE (three-word) struct type passed
to lm_init().
-73 Local checkout filter rejected request.

-74 Attempt to read beyond end of license file path.

-75 + SYS$SETIMR call failed (VMS).
-76 Internal FLEXlm error - please report to GLOBEtrotter
Software.
-77 Bad version number - must be floating-point number
with no letters.
-78 * FLEXlm internal error -78.
-82 Invalid PACKAGE line in license file.
-83 FLEXlm version of client newer than server.
-84 USER_BASED license has no specified users - see
server log.
-85 License server doesn’t support this request.
-86 License object already in use (Java only).
-87 Checkout exceeds MAX specified in options file.
-88 System clock has been set back.
-89 This platform not authorized by license.
-90 Future license file format or misspelling in license file.
The file was issued for a later version of FLEXlm than
this program understands.
-91 ENCRYPTION_SEEDS are non-unique.
-92 Feature removed during lmreread, or wrong SERVER
line hostid.

-93 This feature is available in a different license pool.

This is a warning condition. The server has pooled one
or more INCREMENT lines into a single pool, and the
request was made on an INCREMENT line that has
been pooled.
-94 Attempt to generate license with incompatible attributes.
-95 Network connect to this_host failed.
The license file indicates this_host, and the server is
not running on this host. If it’s running on a different
host, this_host should be changed to the correct host.
-96 Server node is down or not responding.
See the system administrator about starting the server, or
make sure that you’re referring to the right host (see
LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable).
-97 The desired vendor daemon is down.

1) Check the lmgrd log file, or 2) Try lmreread.
-98 This FEATURE line can’t be converted to decimal
format.
-99 The decimal format license is typed incorrectly.
-100 Cannot remove a linger license.
-101 All licenses are reserved for others.
The system administrator has reserved all the licenses
for others. Reservations are made in the options file. The
server must be restarted for options file changes to take
effect.
-102 [Unused]
-103 [Unused]
-104 [Unused]
-105 [Unused]
-106 License server out of network connections.
The vendor daemon can't handle any more users. See the
debug log for further information.

-107 [Unused]
-108 [Unused]
-109 [Unused]
-110 Dongle not attached, or can’t read dongle.
Either the hardware dongle is unattached, or the
necessary software driver for this dongle type is not
installed.
-112 Missing dongle driver.
In order to read the dongle hostid, the correct driver
must be installed. These drivers are available at
http://www.globetrotter.com or from your software
vendor.
-113 FLEXlock checkouts attempted.
Only one checkout is allowed with FLEXlock-enabled
apps.
-114 SIGN= attribute required.
This is probably because the license is older than the
application. You need to obtain a SIGN= version of this
license from your vendor.
-115 Error in Public Key package.

Appendix F
The Debug Log File
FLEXlm daemons generate debug log files in the following format:

hh:mm:ss (daemon) message
where:
hh:mm:ss Time that the message was logged.

daemon Either lmgrd or the vendor daemon name. In the case
where a single copy of the daemon cannot handle all of
the requested licenses, an optional “_” followed by a
number indicates that this message comes from a forked
daemon.
message The text of the message.
The debug log files can be used to:

• Diagnose configuration problems
• Diagnose daemon software errors
Note: A debug log file cannot be used for usage reporting with SAMreport.
F.1 Informational Messages

Connected to host
This daemon is connected to its peer on host.
CONNECTED, master is host
The license daemons log this message when a quorum is up and everyone
has selected a master.

Informational Messages
DENIED: num_lic feature to user

user was denied access to num_lic licenses of feature.
EXITING DUE TO SIGNAL nnn
EXITING with code nnn
All daemons list the reason that the daemon has exited.
EXPIRED: feature
feature has passed its expiration date.
IN: “feature” user (num_lic licenses)
user has checked in num_lic licenses of feature.
Lost connection to host
A daemon can no longer communicate with its peer on node host, which
can cause the clients to have to reconnect, or cause the number of daemons
to go below the minimum number, in which case clients may start exiting.
If the license daemons lose the connection to the master, they will kill all
the vendor daemons; vendor daemons will shut themselves down.
Lost quorum
The daemon lost quorum, so will process only connection requests from
other daemons.
MULTIPLE vendor servers running. Please kill, and restart license
daemon.
The license daemon has detected that multiple licenses for vendor daemon
vendor are running. The user should kill all vendor processes and restart
the license daemon.
OUT: “feature” user (num_lic licenses)
user has checked out num_lic licenses of feature.
RESERVE feature for USER user
RESERVE feature for HOST host
A license of feature is reserved for either user or host.
REStarted vendor (internet port nnn)
Vendor daemon vendor was restarted at Internet port nnn.
Retrying socket bind (address in use)
The license servers try to bind their sockets for approximately six minutes
if they detect “address in use” errors.
109 The Debug Log File

Configuration Problem Messages
Selected (EXISTING) master host.

This license daemon has selected an existing master host as the master.
SERVER shutdown requested.
A daemon was requested to shut down via a user-generated kill
command.
Server started on host for: “feature_list”
A (possibly new) server was started for the features listed.
Shutting down vendor
The license manager daemon is shutting down the vendor daemon
vendor.
SIGCHLD received. Killing child servers.
A vendor daemon logs this message when a shutdown was requested by
the license daemon.
Started vendor
The license manager daemon logs this message whenever it starts a new
vendor daemon.
Trying to connect to host
The daemon is attempting a connection to host.
F.2 Configuration Problem Messages
host: Not a valid server host, exiting
This daemon was run on an invalid host name.
host: Wrong hostid, exiting
The hostid is wrong for host.
BAD CODE for feature
The specified feature name has a bad license key or signature. It was
probably typed in wrong, or modified by the end user.
CANNOT OPEN options file file
The options file specified in the license file could not be opened.
Couldn’t find a master
The daemons could not agree on a master.

Daemon Software Error Messages
License daemon: lost all connections

This message is logged when all the connections to a server are lost, which
often indicates a network problem.
Lost lock, exiting
Error closing lock file
Unable to re-open lock file
The vendor daemon has a problem with its lock file, usually because of an
attempt to run more than one copy of the daemon on a single node. Locate
the other daemon that is running via a ps command, and kill it with kill
-9.
No DAEMON line for vendor
The license file does not contain a DAEMON or VENDOR line for
vendor.
No DAEMON lines, exiting
The license daemon logs this message if there are no DAEMON or
VENDOR lines in the license file. Because there are no vendor daemons
to start, there is nothing for the license daemon to do.
No features to serve!
A vendor daemon found no features to serve. This could be caused by a
corrupted or incorrectly entered license file.
UNSUPPORTED FEATURE request: feature by user
The user has requested a feature that this vendor daemon does not support.
This can happen for a number of reasons: the license file is bad, the feature
has expired, or the daemon is accessing the wrong license file.
Unknown host: host
The host name specified on a SERVER line in the license file does not exist
in the network database (probably /etc/hosts).
F.3 Daemon Software Error Messages
accept: message
An error was detected in the “accept” system call.
Can’t allocate server table space
A malloc error. Check swap space.

Connection to host TIMED OUT

The daemon could not connect to host.
Illegal connection request to vendor
A connection request was made to vendor, but this vendor daemon is not
vendor.
read: error message
An error in a “read” system call was detected.
select: message
An error in a “select” system call was detected. This is usually a sign of a
system networking failure.
Server exiting
The server is exiting. This is normally due to an error.


Appendix G
FLEXlm Versions
G.1 Version Compatibility and Components

In general, always use the latest lmgrd and lmutil/LMTOOLS, which are
available from http://www.globetrotter.com, and you’ll automatically enjoy
many of the enhancements available in the most recent versions. However,
some enhancements require upgraded vendor daemons, and yet others require
upgraded client applications. Given the following components:
• lmgrd
• lmutil (includes lmstat, lmdown, etc., and LMTOOLS on Windows)
• Vendor daemon
• License file
the rules about compatibility can be summarized as follows:
Version of lmutil must be >=
Version of lmgrd, which must be >=
Version of vendor daemon, which must be >=
Version of client application, which must be >=
Version of license file format
Except for the license file, you can use lmver to discover the version of all
these components. For the vendor daemon, lmgrd, and lmutil, you can also
use the -v argument to print the version.

How to Tell the License File Version
G.2 How to Tell the License File Version

The following rules apply to individual FEATURE, INCREMENT or
UPGRADE lines. It’s possible to have a mix of versions in a single file. Only
the features that a particular application checks out determine the version of the
license for that feature.
Version 2 Blank quotes or a quoted string at the end of the

FEATURE line.
>= Version 3 INCREMENT or UPGRADE line.
>= Version 4 OVERDRAFT, DUP_GROUP, INTERNET, or
PACKAGE appear.
>= Version 5 SUPERSEDE, ISSUED, USER_BASED,
HOST_BASED, or SN appear.
>= Version 6 START appears.
>= Version 7.1 SIGN= attribute appears.
V1.0—1988
First FLEXlm Release, containing all the basic FLEXlm features

V1.5—FEBRUARY 1990
First widely used version including DEMO
V2.1—MARCH 1991
• Improved TIMEOUT support
• Improved ethernet hostid support
V2.21—NOVEMBER 1991
• Added support for many platforms and some platform-specific
improvements, such as hostid
• Hostid ANY added
V2.26—MARCH 1992 (USED ONLY BY SUN)
• Added license lingering
115 FLEXlm Versions

V2.4—DECEMBER 1992
• Added “use-all-feature-lines” capability for incremental license
distribution
• Enhanced vendor customization routines
• Enhanced end-user options file
• Added new hostid types: USER, HOSTNAME, and DISPLAY
• Added port@host to locate license file —downloads license file from
server
V2.61—MARCH 1993 (USED ONLY BY SUN)
• Added INCREMENT and UPGRADE lines to license file
V3.0—MAY 1994
• INCREMENT and UPGRADE behavior changed and improved
• Added UDP protocol support
• Added uname -i hostid for HP
• Added multiple jobs for enhanced support of LM_LICENSE_FILE
environment variable as a license file list
• New, optional license file format with keyword=value syntax for
optional new features, including: asset_info, ISSUER, and NOTICE, “ \ ”
license file continuation character, 2048 character limit per feature
• Removed use of floating point, for enhanced reliability
• FEATURE line additions: ck (for use with lmcksum), OVERDRAFT,
DUP_GROUP, INTERNET hostid
• PACKAGE line
• License Finder
• lmdiag and FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS for end-user diagnostics
V4.1—MAY 1995
• Performance improvements and new platform support
V4.1—PATCH RELEASE 6, OCTOBER 1995
• PC patch release for Windows 95 with various performance improvements
V5.0—MARCH 1996
• Improved port@host behavior—client application doesn’t read license
file
• Automatic port@host via USE_SERVER line in license file
• Hostid lists—lock a feature to several hostids

• New FEATURE attributes: SN (serial number), USER_BASED,

HOST_BASED, MINIMUM, SUPERSEDE, ISSUED (issued date),
CAPACITY (charging based on system capacity)
• Optional avoidance of NIS and DNS via IP address instead of host name
• Improved report log file format
• Server, upon startup, notifies of licenses that will expire within two weeks
• Improved end-user options file functionality
V5.11—FEBRUARY 1997
• SUPERSEDE lists, PLATFORMS= license attribute,
• new end-user options: MAX, TIMEOUTALL
• Windows control panel added
• Windows license generator GENLIC added
V5.12—APRIL 1997
• Performance improvements and new platform support
V6.0—SEPTEMBER 1997
• lmgrd can read multiple license files
• FLEXlm license directory support: *.lic automatically used
• License files require no editing for use at the end-user site
• Optional path on DAEMON/VENDOR line; PATH variable used
• Decimal license format, with lminstall utility for typing in licenses
• FEATURE lines are shorter, easier to understand and type in
• PACKAGE lines can be shipped in separate files that never require user
editing
• Default port numbers make SERVER line port number optional
• Default end-user options file path
• this_host host name supported on SERVER line
• VENDOR_LICENSE_FILE supported (e.g., GSI_LICENSE_FILE)
• @host supported where default port numbers are used
• Windows only: user prompted for license file or license server name
• License files are optionally case insensitive
• lmdown and lmreread accept -vendor vendor argument
• START=dd-mmm-yyyy optional license attribute
117 FLEXlm Versions

V6.1—JUNE 1998
• Performance improvements
V7.0—AUGUST 1999
• License Certificate Manager support for automatic license fulfillment
• Support for “try-before-you-buy” licensing
• License file handles inserted newlines from emailers
• License lines automatically optimally sorted
• Improved LMTOOLS interface for Windows
• lmgrd, when run at command line on Windows, runs in background by
default
• Improved three-server redundancy reliability (v7 vendor daemon and
lmgrd)
• lmreread and lmdown take -all argument to shut down or reread all
lmgrds
• Support registry (Windows) and $HOME/.flexlmrc for FLEXlm
environment variables
• Automatically install license path in registry or $HOME/.flexlmrc after
successful checkout
• Options support for LM_PROJECT with PROJECT
• Performance improvements, especially for Windows NT
• Intel Pentium III CPU-ID (v7.0d+, November 1999)
V7.1—AUGUST 2000
• Security enhancements
• SIGN= attribute in license
• Performance enhancements

119 FLEXlm Versions

Index E
enabling report log 56
environment variables
FLEXLM_BATCH 93
FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS 93
A LM_LICENSE_FILE 93
ANY hostid 80 LM_PROJECT 93
application, what happens when dies 96 setting 92
asset_info 31 VENDOR_LICENSE_FILE 93
error code
C descriptions 101
checksum 64 format 100
ck 31 EXCLUDE 51
combining license files 94 EXCLUDEALL 52
concurrent license 35 expiration date 28
configuring FLEXlm files 15
converting license formats 70 F
creating options file 48 feature
hostid 29
D listing users 74
DAEMON line 24 name 28
dates, Y2K 94 version 28
debug log file FEATURE line 26
format 108 asset_info 31
rotating to save space 43 ck 31
debugging license server 82 dist_info 31
decimal format licenses 70 DUP_GROUP 29
DEMO hostid 80 expiration date 28
diagnosing checkout problems feature hostid 29
troubleshooting feature name 28
checkouts 64 feature version 28
disabling HOST_BASED 30
lmdown 68 HOSTID 29
lmremove 68 ISSUED 30
DISK_SERIAL_NUMBER hostid 80 ISSUER 30
DISPLAY license count 28
hostid 80 license key 28
type 51 NOTICE 30
dist_info 31 OVERDRAFT 30
DUP_GROUP 29 PLATFORMS 30

serial number 30 G
SIGN 28 GROUP type 52
signature 28
SN 30 H
START 30 HOST type 50
SUPERSEDE 30 host, SERVER line 24
syntax 27 HOST_BASED 30
USER_BASED 30 HOST_GROUP type 53
user_info 31 HOSTID 29
v2 vendor string 29 hostid
vendor daemon name 28 ANY 80
vendor_info 31 DEMO 80
VENDOR_STRING 30 DISK_SERIAL_NUMBER 80
FLEXID hostid 80 DISPLAY 80
FLEXlm FLEXID 80
across Internet 96 HOSTNAME 81
and ATM 97 ID 81
and DNS 98 ID_STRING 81
and domains 98 INTERNET 81
and firewalls 96 SERVER line 24
and ISDN 97 special 80
and NFS 97 table by platform 79
and NIS 98 USER 81
and subnets 98 HOSTNAME hostid 81
and WAN performance 99
components 12 I
configuration 15 ID hostid 81
getting started checklist 15 ID_STRING hostid 81
installing client applications 15 INCLUDE 53
network load 97 INCLUDEALL 54
version compatibility 95 INCREMENT line 26
FLEXlm Programmers Guide 10 installing client applications 15
FLEXlm Reference Manual 10 INTERNET
FLEXLM_BATCH 93 hostid 81
FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS 83 type 51
level 1 83 ISSUED 30
level 2 84 ISSUER 30
level 3 85
floating license 35
121 FLEXlm End Users Guide — December 2000

L license request process 14
license license server
concurrent 35 and Windows 95 99
floating 35 debugging 82
mixed 36 deciding number of nodes 45
network license 35 disk space used 43
node-locked 35 sockets used 42
license count 28 what happens when dies 96
license directory 19 LINGER 54
license file LM_LICENSE_FILE 93
checksum 64 license file list 41
combining multiple 94 syntax 21
compatibility between different to reference multiple files 14
versions 39 LM_PROJECT 93
DAEMON line 24 reporting on project 56
decimal format 36 use in options file 51
expected location 13 lmcksum, syntax 64
FEATURE line 26 lmdiag
format 22 syntax 64
frequently asked questions 94 troubleshooting 64
how to combine 38 lmdown
INCREMENT line 26 disabling 68
list, for redundancy and multiple restricting access 67
vendors 41 syntax 66
LM_LICENSE_FILE 13 lmgrd
lminstall 70 and redundant servers 19
order of lines 37 combining license files 94
overview 13 compatability between versions 40
PACKAGE line 31 debug log file 108
rereading after an update 73 license file list support 38
SERVER lines 39 memory usage 44
specifying location 18 multiple license files 38
types 34 multiple or single lmgrd processes
UPGRADE line 34 39
USE_SERVER line 26 -nfs_log 68
VENDOR line 24 overview 12
with multiple servers 19 ports 96
license file list 19, 40, 41 root perms on UNIX 96
license key 28 running as root 97
license manager daemon 12 shutting down 66

starting 18, 67 M
starting automatically at boot time MAX 55
16 MAX_OVERDRAFT 55
starting debug log 67 memory usage, daemons 44
syntax 67 mixed licenses 36
UNIX startup script 20 multiple license files 38
use latest 114
Windows 21 N
lmhostid, syntax 69 network bandwidth and FLEXlm 44
lminstall network license 35
license file format 70 node-locked license 35
syntax 70 NOLOG 55
lmnewlog, syntax 71 NOTICE 30
lmremove
disabling 68 O
restrcting access 67 options file
syntax 71 creating 48
lmreread DISPLAY type 51
restricting access 67 examples 59
syntax 73 EXCLUDE 51
lmstat EXCLUDEALL 52
output for lmreread 74 GROUP type 52
syntax 74 HOST type 50
lmswitchr, syntax 76 HOST_GROUP type 53
LMTOOLS 77 INCLUDE 53
lmutil INCLUDEALL 54
lmcksum 64 INTERNET type 51
lmdiag 64 keywords 49
lmdown 66 LINGER 54
lmhostid 69 MAX 55
lminstall 70 MAX_OVERDRAFT 55
lmnewlog 71 NOLOG 55
lmremove 71 overview 17
lmreread 73 PROJECT type 51
lmstat 74 read by vendor daemon 58
lmswtchr 76 REPORTLOG 56
lmver 76 required for HOST_BASED 30
lmver, syntax 76 required for USER_BASED 30
RESERVE 56
rules of precedence 58

TIMEOUT 57 SAMwrap Users Guide 10
TIMEOUTALL 58 SERVER line 23
type argument 50 combining license files 39
USER type 50 default port numbers 24
options file path 25 host 24
OPTIONS=SUITE 33 hostid 24
order of lines in license file 37 port number 24
OVERDRAFT 30 redundant servers 23
syntax 24
P setting environment variables 92
PACKAGE line 31 SIGN 28
OPTIONS=SUITE 33 signature 28
syntax 32 SN 30
package suite 33 sockets
PLATFORMS 30 differences under SCO 43
port number number used by license server 42
server default range 24 specifying location of license file 18
SERVER line 24 START 30
VENDOR line 26 starting lmgrd 18
ports in use 96 status of license server 74
PROJECT type 51 SUPERSEDE 30
switching report log
R lmnewlog 71
redundant servers lmswitchr 76
selecting server nodes 45
separate license files 19 T
SERVER lines 23 TIMEOUT 57
remote disks, guidelines for using 44 enabled by developer 57
report log file 43 TIMEOUTALL 58
reporting on project 56 troubleshooting
REPORTLOG 56 bad code error 88
RESERVE 56 can’t connect to server 87
restricting access execl failed 90
lmdown 67 lost lock error 91
lmremove 67 parameter mismatch 88
lmreread 67 VMS socket bind 89
with FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS 83
S with lmdiag 64
SAMreport 56 wrong hostid 86
SAMsuite Users Guide 10

U Y
UPGRADE line, syntax 34 Y2K dates 94
USE_SERVER line 26
USER hostid 81
USER type 50
USER_BASED 30
user_info 31
V
vendor daemon
and redundant servers 19
debug log file 108
lmnewlog 71
lmreread 73
lmswitchr 76
memory usage 44
options file 49
overview 13
restarting 66
sockets 42
uncounted licenses 47
VENDOR_LICENSE_FILE 93
version compatibility 40
vendor daemon name
FEATURE line 28
VENDOR line 25
vendor daemon path 25
VENDOR line 24
options file path 25
port number 26
vendor daemon name 25
vendor daemon path 25
vendor string, v2 29
vendor.opt 25, 49
vendor_info 31
VENDOR_LICENSE_FILE 22, 93
VENDOR_STRING 30
W
Windows 95, and license server 99

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FLEXlm End

GLOBEtrotter Software, Inc.

Voice: (408) 445-8100

© 1995-2000 GLOBEtrotter Software,

GLOBEtrotter Software products

FLEXlm End Users Guide — December 2000 iv

v FLEXlm End Users Guide — December 2000

FLEXlm End Users Guide — December 2000 vi

1.1 Versions of FLEXlm

1.2 How to Use This Manual

FLEXlm End Users Guide — December 2000 8

1.2.1 License Administrator

This chapter: Explains:

In addition, you can refer to Appendix B, “Troubleshooting Guide,” which

This chapter: Explains:

In addition, you can refer to Appendix B, “Troubleshooting Guide,” which

1.3 Related Documents from GLOBEtrotter Software

FLEXlm End Users Guide — December 2000 10

Introduction and Overview

2.1 Introduction to FLEXlm

2.2 FLEXlm Components

FLEXlm End Users Guide — December 2000 12

Note: lmgrd is not present on VMS or Netware systems.

2.2.2 The Vendor Daemon

13 Introduction and Overview

2.3 The License Request Process

FLEXlm End Users Guide — December 2000 14

2.4 Configuring FLEXlm

2.5 Getting Started Checklist

15 Introduction and Overview

4. Determine if an options file is desired, and if so, set it up.

FLEXlm End Users Guide — December 2000 16

or SYS$COMMON:[SYSMGR] (VMS), but you can install them in a different

17 Introduction and Overview

The License File

The license file contains all site-specific information required by FLEXlm.

where license_file_path is the full path to the license file and

3.1 Specifying Location of the License File

FLEXlm End Users Guide — December 2000 18

• Set LM_LICENSE_FILE to port@host, where host and port come from

3.1.1 Starting the License Server at System Startup

19 The License File

On UNIX, edit the appropriate boot script, which may be /etc/rc.boot,

/bin/nohup /bin/su daniel -c ’umask 022; \

/bin/su daniel -c ’echo sleep 5 >> \

/bin/su daniel -c ’echo lmdiag >>\

/bin/su daniel -c ’/home/flexlm/v5.12/hp700_u9/lmdiag -n -c\

/bin/su daniel -c ’echo exiting >>\

FLEXlm End Users Guide — December 2000 20

• The su command is used to run lmgrd as a non-root user, “daniel.” We

21 The License File

In the Korn and Bourne shells:

On Windows 95, add the following line to C:\autoexec.bat:

Note: Some applications do not recognize the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment

See also Appendix C, “FLEXlm Environment Variables.”

3.2 License File Format

FLEXlm End Users Guide — December 2000 22

• Paths on the DAEMON line(s)

3.2.1 SERVER Lines

23 The License File

The format of the SERVER line is:

host The system host name or IP address. String returned by

3.2.2 DAEMON (or VENDOR) Lines